Korean battery materials supplier raises $302m

The company said in a filing that it would raise the capital across two rounds. The first will see 557,570 new shares issued at KRW 647,475 apiece to a group of domestic institutional investors. In addition to IMM and Premier, they include Woori Private Equity, Khepris Holdings, NH Investment & Securities, and Eum Private Equity. Details of the second round were not given.

EcoPro Innovation is expected to pursue an IPO. If it fails to go public within an agreed period, the investors can exercise put options against the parent company.

The company is one of seven subsidiaries under EcoPro, of which five serve the battery industry. They manufacture cathode and high-nickel anode materials for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems and cathode material precursors that are essential to lithium secondary cells, as well as recycling used batteries. Other subsidiaries produce industrial gas and develop technologies to counter air pollution.

EcoPro Innovation supplies core materials used by its sister companies. Specifically, it manufactures and processes lithium compounds, including lithium nickel oxide, an electrode additive, and battery-grade lithium hydroxide, which comes from low-purity lithium. It claims to have built an entire battery value chain, recycling materials from used batteries to ease Korea’s reliance on lithium imports.

Founded in 1998, EcoPro had just over 3,000 employees as of March and generated sales of KRW 5.6trn and a net profit of KRW 220.6bn for the 12 months ended December 2022. EcoPro Innovation's headcount was 224 and it contributed KRW 423.6bn in revenue.

Korea has carved out a globally leading position in battery development through companies such as LG Energy Solution, a spinout from the advanced materials division of LG Corporation-owned LG Chemicals. Earlier-stage interest in the space is also rising. In 2021, IMM Private Equity – a separate firm from IMM Investment – secured anchor LP commitments for a battery fund from LG Chem and LG Energy.

The fund, which is targeting KRW 400bn, will focus on components for EV batteries, such as cathode and anode material manufacturing and recycling core metals for batteries.

“Our basic investment strategy is to focus on the growth stage, providing capex investment. We look to help leading companies that are looking for capital to really increase their capacity,” Jungwon Kim, a managing director at IMM Private Equity who heads the battery fund, told AVCJ last year.

IMM Investment was established in 1999 as a venture capital firm and now has KRW 6.4trn in assets under management across VC, growth equity, and infrastructure. It has about two dozen funds. Premier Partners was founded in 2005 and operates in the small to mid-cap space with approximately KRW 2trn in assets across nine private equity funds, seven venture capital funds, and two life sciences funds.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Expansion
• Cleantech
• Industrials
• South Korea
• energy storage
• Electric Vehicles
• IMM Investment
• IMM Private Equity
• Premier Partners
• Growth capital