Hyundai Oilbank scraps IPO plans

Hyundai Oilbank, a petroleum and refinery company, headquartered in Seosan, South Korea., ditched its plans to go public due to the stagnant stock market. The company, which is the refining arm of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, decided to cancel its application for an initial public offering with the Korea Exchange, and this was announced on Thursday, July 21.

According to The Korea Times, the decision to withdraw its IPO plans was actually reached on Wednesday after Hyundai Oilbank conducted a general evaluation of the current stock market conditions. It also reviewed the stock price trend of other refinery firms, and with everything it has gathered, the company can clearly see that this is not the best time to push with its plans to go public.

“In the current market situation where it is difficult to be recognized properly by our excellent performance, we judged that there is no reason to push for IPO anymore,” an official of Hyundai Oilbank said in a statement. "We decided to withdraw our planned initial public offering (IPO) at a time when we are facing tough market circumstances, which means we cannot be properly valued despite our solid earnings performance."

The company said in a separate statement, “Although we have decided not to continue with the IPO plan, we will continue to invest in future businesses such as petrochemical materials, biofuels and hydrogen, and also work on improving our financial structure.”

It was in December of last year when the refinery applied for an initial public offering. This was the firm’s third attempt, as it also canceled its IPO process in 2019 and 2012. It was noted that it is not only Hyundai Oilbank that has backed out from its plans, but SK Shieldus and Hyundai Engineering also scrapped their IPO filing this year.

Finally, The Korea Times reported that in Hyundai Oilbank’s first two attempts for IPO, it gave up its plans citing bad external market conditions that is getting worse at the time. In its latest withdrawal, the company thinks it is not likely to receive a proper valuation from the market due to the ongoing stock market slump in the country.