SK Sells Entire Stake in Vingroup, Secures Over 1 Trillion Won for Future Investments

Invested 1.1 Trillion Won in 2019
Sold 6.05% Stake Over Seven Months
Reflects Share Price Surge and FX Gains
Estimated Recovery Up to 1.3 Trillion Won

SK Group has sold all of its shares in Vingroup, Vietnam's largest private company, and has recouped more than 1.1 trillion won. Six years after investing 1.1 trillion won in 2019 to become Vingroup's fourth-largest shareholder, SK has now completely divested its stake and recovered more than its original investment. The funds recovered are expected to be used to strengthen SK's financial soundness and to increase its capacity for investment in future strategic businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and energy solutions.

SK Innovation headquarters located in SK Seorin Building, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

On August 6, SK Group announced that it had completed the sale of its 6.05% stake in Vingroup, held through its local investment arm 'SK Investment Vina II', over a period of about seven months from January to early August this year.

This sale was carried out through an on-market block trade to a pre-designated third-party institutional investor. While the identity of the buyer and detailed terms were not disclosed, the sale proceeds exceeded the 1.1 trillion won originally invested in 2019. The first tranche sold in January accounted for 22% of SK's total holdings and brought in approximately 120 billion won. Since January, SK sold the remaining 78% of its stake, which is nearly four times the amount sold in January. Based on this, it is estimated that the total proceeds from the sale could exceed 1.3 trillion won.

This strong recovery was influenced by the recent rise in Vingroup's share price. The stock, which was 39,000 Vietnamese dong (VND) in January this year, rose to 104,000 VND in early August, a 2.6-fold increase. In addition, since the value of the Korean won against the US dollar declined more than the Vietnamese dong did over the same period, SK also benefited from a relative foreign exchange gain.

It appears that SK Group closely monitored Vingroup's share price trends and exchange rate fluctuations to determine the optimal timing for the sale. The funds secured are expected to be used both to strengthen the group's financial stability and to increase investment capacity in areas that SK has identified as mid- to long-term strategic priorities, such as AI, semiconductors, and energy solutions.

Since last year, SK Group has been aggressively pursuing a rebalancing strategy to secure sustainable competitiveness through proactive business restructuring. In particular, some of the funds may be used to provide financial support to key affiliates that have seen increased capital needs, such as through recent rights offerings.

Last month, SK participated in SK Innovation's 2 trillion won rights offering, directly contributing 400 billion won, and announced plans to enter into a price return swap (PRS) agreement for a third-party allocation rights offering worth 1.6 trillion won. In May, SK also unveiled a plan to invest a total of 80 trillion won in AI over three years through 2026. The investment will target AI semiconductors, data centers, and services, with the goal of securing global competitiveness across both hardware and software. In this context, SK Hynix announced plans to invest a total of 103 trillion won over five years through 2028, with 82 trillion won of that focused on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other AI semiconductor fields. SK Telecom and SK Broadband plan to invest a combined total of 3.4 trillion won in building AI data centers over the same period.

An SK official stated, "We plan to pursue continued growth by leveraging Vietnam's growth potential and creating synergies between new growth areas and SK Group's business strategy," adding, "We also intend to maintain a strong partnership with Vingroup in future growth business sectors."

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