LS Acquires All Japanese Shares of Dongjeonryeon... "Chairman Gu Ja-eun Completes First Major M&A"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] LS Group is acquiring the entire stake held by the Japanese consortium in LS Nikko Copper Inc. This marks 23 years since the establishment of JKJS (Japan Korea Joint Smelting), a consortium centered around the Japanese metal company JX Metals, jointly founded in 1999 with LG Cable and others. It is also the first large-scale merger and acquisition (M&A) since Chairman Koo Ja-eun took office.

On the 19th, LS announced that it received approval from the board of directors for a proposal to purchase 49.9% of shares held by JKJS, the second-largest shareholder of LS Nikko Copper, for 933.1 billion KRW, and signed a stock purchase agreement.

To facilitate this, LS will receive financial investment from JKL Partners, a private equity fund (PEF) management company. LS will issue convertible bonds to JKL to first secure 100% ownership of LS Nikko Copper. Subsequently, JKL will be able to exchange the convertible bonds for 24.9% of the copper smelting shares held by LS.

LS expects the company’s corporate and shareholder value to be further enhanced due to the recent rise in copper prices boosting LS Nikko Copper’s performance, as well as anticipated business synergies with group affiliates that handle copper as a key material.

LS Nikko Copper is the largest non-ferrous metal materials company in Korea and owns the Onsan Smelter, the world’s second-largest copper production facility (based on a single smelter). Last year, it recorded sales of 9.9015 trillion KRW, operating profit of 354.4 billion KRW, and total assets of 3.906 trillion KRW.

Additionally, as part of the group’s digital transformation initiatives, LS Nikko Copper has been promoting a smart factory system since 2016, connecting the entire production process via communication networks to enable automated operations. At the end of last year, it became the first in Asia to obtain the ‘Copper Mark’ certification, regarded as an ESG certification system in the copper industry.

LS plans to consider an initial public offering (IPO) and other strategies to further grow the company. Through this, LS aims to develop LS Nikko Copper into a comprehensive materials company producing not only core products like copper and gold but also secondary battery materials and semiconductor materials.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.