This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:27 p.m. on May 27, 2026.
SK Geocentric sold its waste plastic recycling subsidiary Onepol. Analysts say the company is accelerating a restructuring strategy that maintains an eco-friendly investment stance while winding down businesses with weak profitability. In particular, the transaction was completed at a price below the principal invested, reflecting a focus on financial efficiency.
According to the investment bank (IB) industry on the 27th, SK Geocentric recently sold 100% equity in Onepol to private equity fund (PEF) manager JW&Partners. The sell side reportedly completed the transaction by sourcing buyers on its own without appointing a separate advisor.
The sale price is about 6.8 billion won. Considering the funds SK Geocentric injected during the acquisition of Onepol and subsequent operations, the transaction is effectively viewed as taking a loss of about half the investment. Earlier, in 2022, SK Geocentric acquired Onepol for about 11.3 billion won to enter the plastic waste recycling market.
Onepol recycles waste plastic to produce recycled feedstocks and pellets. It has been nurtured as part of SK Geocentric's eco-friendly and circular economy strategy. SK Geocentric has touted the chemical recycling of waste plastic as a future core business and has continued large-scale investments, including building the Ulsan ARC (Advanced Recycling Cluster). It also unveiled a plan to create one of the world's largest recycling complexes by integrating multiple recycling technologies such as pyrolysis, depolymerization, and high-purity PP extraction.
However, it is analyzed that the burden of the business has grown recently as profitability across the waste plastic recycling industry has deteriorated. The petrochemical sector has worsened sharply due to the global economic slowdown and oversupply from China, and the price competitiveness of recycled feedstock has also fallen, causing profitability in eco-friendly businesses to improve more slowly than expected.
Industry watchers see the sale of Onepol as part of this broader restructuring trend. In fact, SK Geocentric recently sold equity stakes in U.S. recycler PureCycle Technologies and Canada's Loop Industries, which it had invested in while expanding its waste plastic recycling business. It is also known to have exited its equity in Superbin, a developer of AI and big data-based waste collection robots.
With funding pressures rising from large-scale eco-friendly investments, the view is that the company is reallocating resources to core businesses by first disposing of assets with low profitability or limited strategic importance. The SK Group-wide rebalancing stance is also seen as a factor.
An industry official said, "SK Geocentric is not shrinking its eco-friendly business per se, but appears to be selectively winding down businesses with limited near-term cash generation."
Meanwhile, JW&Partners, the acquirer in this transaction, is a PEF manager specializing in investments in small and midsize companies. It focuses on manufacturing, materials and components, and new business areas. In 2024, it established JW&Company, a new technology venture finance company, and has been investing in new growth industries.