M&As: Sumitomo Bakelite to acquire AGC's polycarbonate business; SK Innovation to merge battery and lubricant units
Japan’s Sumitomo Bakelite Co has agreed to acquire the polycarbonate business operated by compatriot AGC Inc. and its subsidiary AGC Polycarbonate Co Ltd. By taking over the achievements and technologies that AGC has built up to date and integrating the strengths of each company, it says it aim to improve services to customers, develop our business and create new value. Terms were not disclosed.
This acquisition will contribute to enhancing the competitiveness of polycarbonate products used in the group’s strategic mobility areas (automobiles, aircraft and railways).
In the driver assistance field, where growth is particularly expected, it is possible to create synergies by combining the unique optical sheet technologies of Sumitomo Bakelite and AGC.
The company will take over AGC’s polycarbonate products and strengthen its product capabilities in building materials and industrial and electronic applications to enhance its competitive advantage. With regard to the Twincarbo brand, it says it will strengthen sales to data centres.
In other news, South Korea’s SK Innovation says it will merge its electric vehicle battery manufacturing unit (SK On) and its lubricants and immersion cooling subsidiary (SK Enmove) to improve its financial structure and boost competitiveness.
The group's intermediate holding company, responsible for its energy and petrochemical businesses, said that the boards of directors of SK On and SK Enmove both approved the former's acquisition. The newly merged entity is scheduled to launch by Nov. 1.
SK Innovation explained the merger will help SK On improve profitability, noting demand from the battery maker's customers for SK Enmove’s immersion cooling technology.
The decision comes after SK Enmove's unsuccessful initial public offering in June, which led SK Innovation to fully incorporate the lubricant arm into its wholly-owned subsidiary. The listing, seen as a potential way to fund the group’s struggling battery and petrochemical businesses, was scrapped following a government warning against conglomerates listing subsidiaries through carve-outs.
Since then, SK Innovation has shifted its focus to unifying its two subsidiaries.
SK Innovation also decided to raise a combined US$5.8 billion this year through paid-in capital increases.
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