SK Innovation is once again mulling a public stock offering forits lubricants subsidiary,SK Lubricants, the company said in a regulatory filing last week.
The South Korean refiner filed a Nov. 21 statement saying Our 100-percent-owned subsidiary SK Lubricants is considering a public offering as one of various options for growth. Well file again when its determined or within a month.
Ahead of this filing, local news media reported that SK was working on a more than 1 trillion won (U.S. $915 million)public offering of its base oil and finished lubricants segment.
Those reports also said SK has appointed two firms, Korea Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities, as lead managers for the offering.
SK attempted to list the company on the stock market in 2012 and 2015 but tabled its plan both times after concluding that the investment climate was not opportune. In 2015, SK Lubricants reportedly discussed the possibility of selling a stake of the company to South Korean private equity firm MBK Partners.
SK Lubricants is the worlds third-largest manufacturer of base oil after ExxonMobil and Shell and is the largest supplier of API Group III base oils. The company recorded 359.2 billion won of operating profit for the three business quarters of this year, the most profits for those three quarters since 2011.