SK Innovation has decided to break off its negotiations to sell its subsidiary SK Lubricants, which was pushed ahead in order to improve its financial structure.
In the official announcement released on June 15, SK Innovation said, “The company had proceeded with negotiations to sell shares of its subsidiary SK Lubricants, but it decided to stop the negotiations in the end.” However, SK Innovation has kept silent about the reason.
As SK Innovation has seen the liquidity crisis due to a recent slump in the oil refining market, the company considered selling its subsidiary SK Lubricants to MBK Partners in order to solve it.
The industry believes that it is the price that stopped the negotiations to sell SK Lubricants. Earlier, SK Innovation reportedly tried to sell SK Lubricants at the price of 2.5 to 3 trillion won (US$2.24 to 2.69 billion).
An official from the industry said, “As the talk of the sale has quickly become known to the public, the variables in price negotiations might be the reason why the negotiations broke down.”
Accordingly, SK Innovation is expected to focus on initial public offering of SK Lubricants.