(Bloomberg) — LG Energy Solution is likely to price its shares at the top of a marketed range in what would be South Korea’s biggest initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Seoul-based company is issuing 34 million new shares and its parent LG Chem Ltd. has offered to sell 8.5 million shares between 257,000 won and 300,000 won apiece. At the top, the first-time sale would raise as much as $10.7 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Allocations are ongoing and the final price, scheduled to be announced later on Friday, could change, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. A representative for LG Energy declined to comment.
The IPO comes in the wake of concerns about fires involving LG Energy’s batteries that led to a mass recall of Chevrolet Bolt electric cars. At a valuation of about $59 billion, it would become the third-largest company in the benchmark Kospi behind chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc.
The company is taking advantage of an IPO frenzy that has swept Korea over the past year. Nine companies that raised at least $500 million with share sales in Seoul over the past year priced them at the top of the marketed range, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The proceeds from the battery maker’s IPO are bigger than the entire amount raised in every single year in South Korea other than 2021, Bloomberg data show. The offering is about 2.5 times larger than the previous record IPO, Samsung Life Insurance Co.’s $4.3 billion raising in 2010.
The sale is set to be the world’s second-largest in the past 12 months, trailing only electric-truck startup Rivian Automotive Inc.’s $13.7 billion deal in the U.S. in November.
LG Energy’s IPO is being led by KB Securities Co. and Morgan Stanley. The stock will start trading Jan. 27.
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