이 기사는 2021년 04월 09일 08시04분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SK IE Technology (SKIET), the spin-off from battery maker SK Innovation, has set aside 449 billion won ($400 million) worth of shares for its employees as it prepares for an initial public offering on the Seoul stock exchange next month, although the portion is unlikely to be fully subscribed given the size of the allotment per person.

SKIET, which makes lithium-ion battery separators used in electric vehicles, said in a prospectus that it allotted some 4.27 million shares, or 20% of the total shares offered in the IPO, to its 208 full-time employees based on local capital market regulations.

The IPO is expected to be priced at the upper end of SKIET’s price range set at 78,000 won to 105,000 won apiece, given strong investor interest in the company, which is positioned to benefit from the fast-growing electric car market.

At the upper end of the price range, the employee portion could be worth as much as 449 billion won, which translates into roughly 2.1 billion won per person on average.

This value is too large to be taken up only by SKIET’s employees, market watchers said. It is also much higher than the value allocated to each employee in IPOs of other affiliates of the SK Group in recent months.

SK Biopharmaceuticals, which went public last summer, allotted to its employees 191.8 billion won worth of shares, or 954 million won per person, though the portion was undersubscribed by about 38%. In the IPO of SK Bioscience last month, the employee quota was worth 298.3 billion won, or 548 million won per person, which was also undersubscribed by about 2% despite the relatively small per-person size of the portion compared to other big deals.

Unsubscribed shares in the employee portion can be purchased by ordinary retail investors, which can buy up to 30% of the total shares offered in the IPO. Any shares left unsold will be added to the quota for institutional investors.

The IPO market in South Korea is heating up this year as investor appetite for public offerings remains strong. The recent 2 trillion won IPO of SK Bioscience was 1,275 times oversubscribed by institutional investors and 335 times oversubscribed by retail investors. (Reporting by Kyung-ju Lee)