The Joint Venture Aims to Enhance Competitiveness, Leveraging KKR’s Global Assets and SK’s Power Generation Capabilities
SK Group is set to consolidate its renewable energy businesses to establish Asia’s largest platform. The plan is to maximize the competitiveness of the renewable energy platform by partnering with global private equity fund (PEF) manager Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) to secure an energy value chain spanning from development to maintenance.
According to investment banking (IB) industry sources on Feb 12, SK Group is reportedly in discussions with KKR to establish a renewable energy joint venture (JV).
On the same day, SK Group held a board meeting and selected KKR as the preferred bidder for acquiring the renewable energy business units under SK Innovation, SK Ecoplant, and SK Discovery, as well as a 31.03% stake in SK Eternix. SK Group is reportedly strongly committed to not merely selling the business units and stakes but to pursuing an integrated entity to continuously foster its renewable energy business. The most likely scenario being discussed is consolidating renewable energy power sources—including solar, offshore and onshore wind, fuel cells, and energy storage systems (ESS), excluding hydrogen business—into a JV structure. The strategy is to reorganize the overlapping and scattered power sources across SK affiliates under a single JV.
To this end, discussions are reportedly underway on a plan where SK Group would contribute power generation assets in kind while KKR would make cash contributions. The value of the power generation assets subject to consolidation, including SK Eternix, is estimated at a total of 2.5 trillion won. Considering the cash contributions as well, an integrated entity worth 5 trillion won would be created.
By consolidating renewable energy power sources into one entity, SK Group would secure the entire value chain spanning from development to construction, operation, and maintenance. This is expected to reduce dependence on individual projects and accelerate decision-making. As power issues have emerged as a key agenda in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the entity is also expected to actively support core group affiliates such as SK hynix and SK Telecom.
SK Group is reportedly pursuing the consolidation as it expects to leverage KKR’s assets to expand its global business while achieving economies of scale through the group’s renewable energy transition and consolidated equipment procurement. Since 2010, KKR has invested approximately $44 billion (approximately 64 trillion won) in climate and environmental sustainability sectors worldwide.
An SK Group official stated, “We are reviewing various measures to strengthen the competitiveness of our renewable energy business, but nothing has been specifically confirmed.”
출처 : Businesskorea(https://www.businesskorea.co.kr)