[naewoeilbo] Lee Su Han =  SK Innovation announced that several agenda items including partial amendments of statutes of the company and the approval for the split-off of its battery and oil exploration and development (E&P) have passed in an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held at SUPEX Hall, SK Seorin Building, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea today.

SK Innovation’s Board of Director (BoD) has approved the spin-off of both battery and oil exploration and development businesses for the reasons that the competitiveness and growth potential of the two need to be objectively acknowledged in the market and the separation of the two from the parent company would be of great help in uplifting the business value of SK Innovation. Resulting from the approval from the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, two newly established corporations (tentatively) named SK Battery Co., Ltd., and SK E&P Co., Ltd. will be officially launched on the coming October 1, 2021.

In the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, the spin-off item of the two new corporations, battery and oil exploration and development businesses was passed at a 80.2 % of approval rate. Also passed include some amendments on the company's statutes including: ▲ the introduction of corporate governance charter, ▲ modification of the names of committees under BoD, and ▲ establishment of a provision to allow dividends through momentary means, stocks, and other properties at the confirmation rate of 97.9%.

It was reported that most domestic and international advisory agencies with voting rights opted for the two items – the spin-off of battery and oil development businesses and the partial amendments of the Statutes.

The approval at the meeting is likely to give momentum to the gist of SK Innovation’s Financial Story, 'Carbon to Green.' SK Innovation released the so-called 'Financial Story', elucidating the company's commitment to transform its carbon-oriented business structure into a green one the last July 1st, 2021, and disclosing the spin-off plan as a means to boost the expertise for battery and oil exploration and development (E&P) businesses by running these units independently, and accelerate the decision-making process and maximize corporate value.

In particular, the swiftly burgeoning battery business has already secured more than 1,000 GWh order backlogs, which raises it to the no. 1 position in the global market and needs to catapult the battery production capacity from the current 40 GWh to above 200 GWh per year by 2025. SK Innovation explained that in this context, this separation will mark a big turning point for the company in terms of greater global competitiveness and growth acceleration.

In addition, officials at SK Innovation said, “The spin-off decision is to let the company’s new flagship businesses to be evaluated in the market and to get revved up to attain a greater growth. It serves to build a foothold to foster these businesses while concomitantly increasing SK Innovation’s corporate value and shareholder value.”

Following the decision made by the shareholder’s meeting, the battery business entity will be in charge of medium to large-sized batteries, BaaS (Battery as a Service), ESS (Energy Storage System), and more, whilst the oil exploration and development entity will assume oil exploration, development and production, and CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage), respectively.

SK Innovation CEO & President Jun Kim stated, "It is an inevitable decision in an attempt to gain the unwavering upper hand in the face of increasingly fierce global competition by enhancing each business's expertise and competitiveness. We will make the most out of this spin-off to expedite the qualitative and quantitative growth of our company by sharpening our competitive edge with the establishment of distinctive and customized management systems.