This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 6:01 p.m. on Apr. 1, 2026.
이 기사는 2026년 4월 01일 18시 01분 조선비즈 머니무브(MM) 사이트에 표출됐습니다.
SK ecoplant decided to buy back the equity held by financial investors (FIs), reflecting an annual return of 7.5%. With the promised initial public offering (IPO) effectively becoming difficult, the company moved to an early settlement. It is a structure that bundles convertible preferred shares (CPS) and common shares for simultaneous recovery.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 1st, SK ecoplant is discussing a plan to recover pre-IPO funds with seven FIs, including Premier Partners and Eum Private Equity (PE), and has effectively agreed to pay a total annual return of 7.5%. The investment principal totals 800 billion won.
In the 2022 pre-IPO, SK ecoplant raised a total of 1 trillion won, including 400 billion won in redeemable convertible preferred shares (RCPS) and 600 billion won in CPS. Among these, FIs are said to have acquired about 600 billion won worth of CPS and about 200 billion won worth of common shares held by existing shareholders together.
The problem is that the IPO did not proceed as promised. SK ecoplant and the FIs are said to have agreed in a shareholders' agreement (SHA) to complete the listing by July 2026 and to file a preliminary review with the Korea Exchange (KRX) at least six months before the listing deadline. However, as the preliminary review was not filed by January this year, an issue arose over adjusting the return due to a breach of contract.
According to the industry, the contract at the time reportedly guaranteed an annual revenue of around 5% under normal circumstances, but included a liquidated damages clause that would raise the return to around 12% if the preliminary review was not filed within the set deadline. Accordingly, FIs have maintained the position that "under the contract, a 12% rate must be applied to the new share investment portion."
However, the 12% is known to apply mainly to new shares, especially securities such as CPS issued directly by the company. In contrast, the prevailing interpretation is that there is no explicit obligation on the company to buy back old shares acquired by FIs from existing shareholders. For this reason, SK ecoplant has maintained that it is difficult to settle old shares on the same terms, while FIs have pushed back, demanding the simultaneous recovery of both new and old shares. In the end, the two sides agreed to settle new and old shares bundled as a package and have been discussing accordingly.
An IB industry official said, "From the FI's perspective, it is more beneficial to dispose of the entire equity at once and recover the investment, rather than applying 12% only to new shares and leaving old shares behind," adding, "SK ecoplant can also avoid the burden of going into litigation while sorting out relations with investors, so I understand that the negotiations were reached at the midpoint level of 7.5%."
The market believes it is virtually difficult for SK ecoplant to resume listing procedures within this year. With even the preliminary review not filed and the issue of recovering pre-IPO funds no longer deferrable, the company ultimately set a course to buy back the FI equity directly.
In terms of amount, the burden on SK ecoplant is not small. If the annual return for about four years from the 2022 investment point is reflected on the principal of 800 billion won, the actual settlement size is likely to be formed around 1 trillion won. However, compared with the worst-case scenario of uniformly applying 12% per year, analysis suggests the company reduced expense by hundreds of billions of won.