SK On invests in Yuilrobotics for its US battery plants

SK On Co., the world’s fifth-largest electric vehicle battery producer, is slated to invest in South Korean robot automation system developer Yuilrobotics Co. to introduce a smart factory operation system to its US plants.  

SK On’s US subsidiary SK Battery America Inc. will inject $26.8 million into Yuilrobotics' rights offering, according to the robotics firm’s regulatory filing on Tuesday. SK Battery America will own a 14.6% stake in Yuilrobotics as the second-largest shareholder, following the robot maker's founder Kim Dong-hun who holds 42.8%.

Yuilrobotics, listed on the junior Kosdaq, will issue 1.52 million shares for 24,014 won ($17.7) apiece in the rights offering. The transaction will be completed by June 10.

“We have decided on the deal to increase our productivity by using robotics technology. The technology can be introduced to not only the US-based facilities but also plants in other markets,” an SK Battery America official said.

SK On has accelerated its smart factory operations for EV battery manufacturing since around two years ago.

In February 2022, the unit of Korea’s top energy firm SK Innovation Co. hired Lee Kang-won, former head of cloud tech at SK Telecom Co. as its chief data officer (CDO). Lee has focused on smart factory solutions development based on artificial intelligence and robots.   

In April 2023, SK On signed a contract to buy T-Robotics Co.’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for 29.5 billion won to use them for its battery production facility in Kentucky.

The SK Group unit entered into a six-party non-binding agreement with Korean and overseas companies, Beckhoff Automation, Cisco Systems, IFM Electronic, Yaskawa Electric Korea and Woowon Technology last December to collaborate on the intellectualization of battery production equipment.

Established in 2011, Yuilrobotics specializes in collaborative robots for cooking and industrial robots for assembly, arc welding, packaging and transportation. The company posted a 7 billion won operating loss and 29.5 billion in revenue last year.

The robot system maker’s stock soared 29.9% to close at its daily limit of 37,850 won on May 28 after news of the rights offering was released on the day.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.