SK Nexilis Co., one of the world’s three largest copper foil producers, will raise ₩300 billion ($207 million) from IMM Credit Solutions through a financing structure tied to a future sale rather than an initial public offering.
The deal marks another step in parent SKC Ltd.’s effort to shore up its struggling battery materials unit. SK Nexilis has been battered by weakening electric vehicle demand, with sales plunging 49% year-over-year in early 2024 and the company swinging to an operating loss of ₩39.9 billion. Total borrowings ballooned from around ₩200 billion in 2020 to ₩1.13 trillion by the end of 2023.
SK Group’s broader restructuring campaign has already seen SKC offload SK Nexilis’s thin film division to Affirma Capital for approximately ₩95 billion, while the conglomerate has sold nearly a dozen units to private equity firm Hahn & Co. over the past seven years.
The unconventional deal structure with IMM sidesteps the uncertain public equity markets while giving SKC a path toward eventual divestiture. IMM Credit Solutions, the private credit arm of IMM Holdings, closed Korea’s largest-ever blind credit fund at nearly ₩1 trillion earlier this year, backed by the National Pension Service and other institutional investors.
