EcoPro, Soaring in Secondary Battery Market, Applies for Membership in Federation of Korean Industries

Confirmation of Ecopro Membership Application Submission, Likely to Join
4 Major Groups and POSCO Also Possible... POSCO Reviewing Application

Secondary battery company EcoPro has applied to join the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI). Since being designated as a Fair Trade Commission publicly disclosed business group (large business group) with assets exceeding 5 trillion won this year, the possibility of gaining membership status in the major economic organization FKI has increased.

According to FKI sources on the 17th, it was confirmed that EcoPro submitted an application form. FKI will decide on EcoPro's membership after a board review. Approval of the membership is reported to be likely. An FKI official stated, "It has been confirmed that EcoPro submitted the application."

EcoPro is the holding company of the EcoPro Group. It earned sales of 4.0816 trillion won in the first half of the year and is the second-largest company by market capitalization on KOSDAQ, reaching 29.5 trillion won. It newly joined the large business group category after being designated as a publicly disclosed business group in April. As of the end of 2022, its fair assets stood at 6.94 trillion won, ranking 62nd in the business community.

Interest also centers on whether the four major groups?Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG?will return. In mid-last month, FKI sent an official letter to the four major groups requesting them to join the Korea Economic Association (KEA) after its organizational restructuring. FKI will handle the agenda of absorbing the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) and changing the KEA’s name at the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for the 22nd.

Samsung plans to discuss details such as participation in KEA and conditional approval at the Compliance Committee meeting on the 18th. SK and LG are reviewing whether to join KEA, while Hyundai Motor Group has not yet made a decision. The business community believes that if Samsung’s membership decision is announced, it is highly likely that all four major groups will join.

For the four major groups to return to FKI, all 16 member affiliates of KEA must decide on rejoining through their respective boards. The KEA member companies include five Samsung affiliates (Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung Securities), four SK affiliates (SK Inc., SK Innovation, SK Telecom, SK Networks), five Hyundai Motor affiliates (Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai Construction, Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Steel), and two LG affiliates (LG Corp., LG Electronics).

POSCO Holdings is also pushing to submit an application form to join KEA.

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