Hyundai Heavy aims to raise about $1 bn in Sept IPO

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. is aiming to raise up to 1.08 trillion won ($940 million) in a South Korean initial public offering next month to finance its expansion into eco-friendly businesses such as ships powered by ammonia or hydrogen-based fuel cells.

On Tuesday, the world's largest shipbuilder submitted its IPO prospectus to the regulatory Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). It is seeking to float 18 million shares between 52,000 and 60,000 won apiece to raise between 940 billion and 1.08 trillion won. ($820 million to $940 million).

On the Korea Exchange, Hyundai Heavy is expected to become the second-largest listed shipbuilder with a market capitalization of 5.3 trillion won, after its parent Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) with a market value of 8.8 trillion won. KSOE is the intermediate holding company of the Hyundai Heavy Industries Group.

After raising fresh capital through the IPO, Hyundai Heavy plans to spend a total of 1 trillion won over the next three years on new businesses such as ammonia- or hydrogen-fueled ships and autonomous ships or vessels that operate on their own, as well as to acquire fuel cell manufacturing companies.

Credit Suisse, Mirae Asset Securities Co. and Korea Investment & Securities Co. are joint bookrunners of the IPO.

HYUNDAI OILBANK

Hyundai Oilbank, another unit of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, began the process of hiring its IPO managers on Tuesday. The refiner's enterprise value is estimated at 8 trillion won, according to investment banking sources.

The shipbuilding group is also planning to list two other arms: Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Global Corp., an after-sales service company.

A spate of planned IPOs of the shipbuilding group's units follow the group's 850 billion won purchase of a controlling stake in Doosan Infracore Co., a construction equipment manufacturer, and the 2 trillion won acquisition of a 55.7% stake in Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. between last year and earlier this year.

Together with Hyundai Construction Equipment Co., Hyundai Heavy Industries Group is now ranked the world's fifth-largest construction equipment manufacturer.  

The acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding is pending approval from South Korea, Japan and the European Union. 

Hyundai Heavy's IPO comes after a slew of recent public offerings have drawn lackluster interest, and had disappointing market debuts. On Tuesday, Krafton Inc., the developer of the popular online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, tumbled almost 9% from its IPO price by market close.

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co, the listed sister company of Hyundai Heavy, has declined 15% over the past tree months, erasing part of its 230% surge between October 2020 and May of this year.

After reporting heavy second-quarter losses, however, South Korea’s three major shipbuilders are looking to raise new shipbuilding prices to pass on higher prices of steel plates, which analysts expect to lend support to their share prices.

In the first half of this year, Hyundai Heavy secured $8.6 billion worth of shipbuilding orders, close to its full-year target of $8.9 billion and more than a fivefold increase from $1.5 billion in the year-earlier period.

Write to Jin-seong Kim at jskim1028@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.