Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 30 years of experience in the Korean/Asian equity research. Major sectors coverage include the following:
- Technology 
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Tender Offers/M&As
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

LG Chem & SK Innovation Reach an Agreement Right Before SK IET IPO Book Opens

SK IET BB: Pricing Discounts, Major Shareholder Selling, & K200 Entry

LGChem/SKI Deal - Another Korea Discount Worry? Follow the Female Lead

Comparison of LG Chem's Carve-Out & SK Innovation's Spin-Off of Rechargeable Battery Businesses

Equity Capital Markets

SK IE Technology   / Equity Capital Markets

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Our base case valuation of SK IET is 143,413 won, which represents a 37% upside from the high end of the IPO price range of 105,000 won. Our sensitivity analysis suggests a valuation range of 95,590 won to 201,864 won. To value SK IET, we used EV/EBITDA valuation method, using our base case 2021 EBITDA estimate of 242 billion won and applied a 39.1x EV/EBITDA multiple.
This valuation multiple is 20% premium to the the average EV/EBITDA multiple of the comps in 2021. We believe this 20% premium multiple to the peers is reasonable for SK IET mainly due to the company's higher EBITDA margins and ROE than the comps. 
</div>We forecast <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-ie-technology" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29207:1" rel="noopener">SK IE Technology (SKIET KS)</a> to generate sales of 617.1 billion won (up 31.5% YoY) an operating profit of 163.6 billion won (up 30.7% YoY) in 2021. From 2020 to 2025, we estimate the company's sales to increase at a CAGR of 28%.The book building for the SK IET starts on 22 April and it will start trading on 11 May. Overall, we have a positive view of the SK IET IPO. However, we would caution investors on having too high of expectations for the IPO similar to SK Bioscience, Kakao Games, or SK Biopharm as we believe that the overall upside for the SK IET is likely to be much lower than these other major Korean IPOs in the past year.


Our base case valuation of SK IET is 143,413 won, which represents a 37% upside from the high end of the IPO price range of 105,000 won. Our sensitivity analysis suggests a valuation range of 95,590 won to 201,864 won. To value SK IET, we used EV/EBITDA valuation method, using our base case 2021 EBITDA estimate of 242 billion won and applied a 39.1x EV/EBITDA multiple.
This valuation multiple is 20% premium to the the average EV/EBITDA multiple of the comps in 2021. We believe this 20% premium multiple to the peers is reasonable for SK IET mainly due to the company's higher EBITDA margins and ROE than the comps. 
We forecast SK IE Technology (SKIET KS) to generate sales of 617.1 billion won (up 31.5% YoY) an operating profit of 163.6 billion won (up 30.7% YoY) in 2021. From 2020 to 2025, we estimate the company's sales to increase at a CAGR of 28%.The book building for the SK IET starts on 22 April and it will start trading on 11 May. Overall, we have a positive view of the SK IET IPO. However, we would caution investors on having too high of expectations for the IPO similar to SK Bioscience, Kakao Games, or SK Biopharm as we believe that the overall upside for the SK IET is likely to be much lower than these other major Korean IPOs in the past year. 

SK IE Technology

SK IET Valuation Analysis