SK Innovation aims to grow through M&A

SK Innovation Chairman Kim Jun said the company plans to strengthen its oil refining business, while looking for new opportunities in the chemicals and battery sectors to build sustainable growth.

”SK Innovation will seek for more merger and acquisition opportunities, as well as partnerships with companies abroad,” he said. “SK Innovation aims to build a more sustainable profit structure through the choice and focus strategy.”

The company, which owns South Korea’s top oil refiner SK Energy, said it plans to invest about KRW10 trillion (USD8.8 billion) by 2020, mainly on its battery and chemical businesses.

SK Innovation is aiming for a 30% market share in the global battery market by 2025. Thus, the company plans to boost its battery capacity from last year’s 1.1 gigawatt-hours(GWh) to 10 GWh by 2020. The company is constructing two production lines in Seosan, South Korea, which will add 1 GWh each by the middle of next year. It also plans to construct battery capacity in Eastern Europe later this year, to supply electric vehicle (EV) battery cells to Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG.

The global battery market is expected to reach 100 GWh in 2020, and between 300 GWh and 1,000 GWh in 2025, from 25 GWh in 2016.

SK Innovation’s latest battery technology allows electric cars to travel up to 350 kilometres (km) on a single charge. The company aims to upgrade its battery range to 500 km by 2018 and 700 km by 2020.

Meanwhile, SK Innovation said it will continue to expand its petrochemicals business by looking for more mergers and acquisitions. Its aim is to make SK Global Chemical among the top 10 chemical companies globally.