SK Inc. sells entire stake in Socar to Lotte Rental

SK Inc. is selling its entire stake in the car-sharing platform Socar to Lotte Rental at 146.2 billion won ($110.5 million). [NEWS1]

SK Inc. is selling its entire stake in the car-sharing platform Socar to Lotte Rental at 146.2 billion won ($110.5 million).

The investment arm of SK Group said Thursday it will sell 17.9 percent of its holdings in Socar by Sept. 2024 to Lotte Rental, a car rental company under Lotte Group.

After the acquisition, Lotte Rental will become the No. 2 shareholder of the car-sharing platform, holding 32.9 percent of its shares.

“Through the selloff, [SK Inc.] plans to accelerate the virtuous cycle of investment by securing a new growth engine,” SK Inc. said in a release.

SK Inc. is expected to gain a 148 percent rate of return from the deal as it had acquired its stakes in Socar in 2015 at 59 billion won.

SK Inc. sold off its entire stake in Turo, a U.S.-based peer-to-peer vehcle-sharing platform, at 88.1 billion won in March. The deal gave SK Inc. a rate of return of approximately 121 percent.

The series of sell-offs come at a time when SK Group is feeling the cash crunch to realize its investment promises in batteries and chips, a lot of which will be committed to the United States.

SK hynix, in July, for example, said it would sell its water treatment center in Icheon, Gyeonggi to SK reit to secure an estimated 1 trillion won.

Before that, Busan City Gas, an SK Inc. subsidiary, sold its property in Busan for 632.8 billion won.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]