이 기사는 2021년 09월 03일 08시04분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SK Ecoplant may exclude its semiconductor, data center plant businesses from its planned sale of its plant division, ECO Engineering, possibly in a bid to keep the businesses that may affect competitiveness of SK Group affiliates like SK hynix.

SK Ecoplant is considering splitting chemical engineering and thermal power plant businesses, excluding semiconductor, data center, and nuclear plant businesses, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Given that it is difficult to change a contracting party for large sites such as Karbala, Iraq and Goseong Green Power in Gangwon Province among projects carried out by chemical engineering and thermal power plant businesses, the company plans to relocate employees to a spin-off company upon the completion of the projects.

After the split-off, around 1200 employees of 4400 employees of SK Ecoplant are expected to be relocated to a new entity.

The plant is the largest division among SK Ecoplant’s businesses, with around 2000 employees. Most of the personnel are expected to be relocated, excluding employees that belong to semiconductor, data center, and nuclear plant businesses.

SK Ecoplant aims to exclude those businesses from its planned sale due to possible information leaks. SK Ecoplant is in charge of designing and constructing SK hynix’s chip fab. A structure of a fab or a layout of facilities are considered key confidential matters in the memory business as they can affect the output.

It is said that Samsung Group also allows only Samsung C&T and Samsung Engineering to design and construct Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor fabs.

Some market watchers said the value of SK Ecoplant’s plant division may decrease significantly if it excludes semiconductor, data center and nuclear plant businesses that have heavily relied on SK Group affiliates.

“I heard that a very high proportion of the plant division’s profits comes from construction projects related to SK hynix,” said an industry source. “It will be difficult to attract potential buyers if the businesses are excluded from the sale.” (Reporting by Byung-geun Kam)