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The South Korea Sebitchem has been listed on the Korean stock exchange after a heavily oversubscribed IPO. The company will raise 37.45 billion won ($27M) from the IPO and initially get a market cap of 166.4 billion won ($120).
Sebitchem was originally focused on waste water treatment and recycling of liquid waste but has positioned itself as a battery recycler. The company started to process waste batteries in 2016. Working with Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources the company invested 2 billion won ($1.6M) in a process which produces a nickel cobalt manganese sulphate solution and lithium carbonate which is sold to precursor producers.
In 2021 Sebitchem recorded sales of 33.3 billion won ($24M) of which 70% came from the battery recycling business. In 2022 the company posted sales of 10.3 billion won ($7.4M) in the first quarter with a operating profit of 3.5 billion won ($2.5M). In June the company signed an MOU with the joint venture between LG Chem and KEMCO according to which Sebitchem will supply the JV with recycled materials for the production of up to 6,000 tonnes of NMC procursors. A final agreement is expected to run over 10 years. Other customers include Ecopro, L&F and POSCO.
Sebitchem is the second battery recycler to list on KOSDAQ this year as the significantly larger player, Sungeel Hitech, filed for an IPO in July.