Electric vehicle battery producer LG Energy Solutions made its debut on the South Korean stock exchange last week, marking the country’s largest IPO ever. The newly minted shares briefly doubled on their first day of trading before finishing the day up by more than 65%.
In 2020, LG Energy Solutions spun off from its South Korean parent company, LG Chem. The company now has more than 20,000 employees and supplies EV batteries to auto manufacturers like Tesla (TSLA), General Motors Company (GM), and Volkswagen. LG Energy Solutions also makes batteries for drones and ships.
Earlier last week before its debut, LG Energy Solutions broke the news about its plan to build a $2.6b battery factory in the US with General Motors. The two companies expect the factory to be completed by 2024.
Why it matters
LG Energy Solutions raised a total of $10.6b from its debut last week, making it Asia's biggest equity fund raising since Alibaba's IPO in 2019. The battery producer is now the second most valuable company on Seoul's benchmark Kospi index.
