Core Materials for Secondary Batteries like Elecfoil, Hydrogen Fuel Tanks, and More... Leading the Eco-friendly Materials and Components Industry
"As a Major Corporation, We Will Fulfill Social Responsibilities Commensurate with Our Scale"
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwak Minjae] Iljin Group, a specialized parts and materials company, has been newly designated as a "large business group" subject to the Fair Trade Act.
On the 27th, the Fair Trade Commission newly designated eight large business groups with total assets of 5 trillion won or more, including Iljin Group, Dunamu, Krafton, Boseong, KG, OK Financial Group, Shinyoung, and Nongshim. Three groups, IMM Investment, Korea Investment Finance, and Daewoo Construction, were excluded from designation. The Fair Trade Commission designates publicly disclosed business groups annually by May 1st in accordance with the Enforcement Decree of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act.
The Fair Trade Commission also confirmed the same person (head) for the newly designated business groups. Chairman Heo Jin-gyu was designated as the head of Iljin Group. According to the financial status of publicly disclosed business groups compiled by the Fair Trade Commission, Iljin Group has 38 affiliates, total assets of 5.271 trillion won, and a debt ratio of 38.8%. Judging by the debt ratio alone, the company’s fundamentals are solid.
Chairman Heo Jin-gyu founded Iljin in 1968 with a total capital of 300,000 won and grew it into a leading domestic materials and parts company with 38 domestic and overseas affiliates and sales of 2.141 trillion won. Products independently developed by Iljin Group include Elecfoil (copper foil), a core material for secondary batteries, hydrogen fuel tanks, as well as industrial diamonds, copper-clad steel wire, and seamless steel pipes.
Iljin Materials, which produces electric vehicle battery materials, is a representative company leading the group’s growth. After more than 30 years of research and development (R&D), it began mass production of Elecfoil for secondary batteries in Korea for the first time in 2001. Elecfoil for electric vehicles is a thin copper foil less than 10 μm (micrometers) thick and is known to play a decisive role in improving the battery performance of electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESS).
Iljin High Solus is also driving the growth of Iljin Group. It is the only company in Korea mass-producing Type 4 hydrogen fuel tanks, a core component of hydrogen vehicles. According to the company, only this company and Japan’s Toyota have succeeded in mass-producing Type 4 tanks worldwide.
Iljin Group is also fostering the bioindustry as a future growth industry. Since 2011, Iljin S&T has invested in shares of the Canadian pharmaceutical company Orinia. The company’s treatment for the intractable disease lupus nephritis (Lupkynis) received FDA approval in the United States in January last year and is currently being sold in the U.S.
Under the Fair Trade Act, companies belonging to publicly disclosed business groups are subject to various disclosure and reporting obligations, such as large-scale internal transactions, disclosure of major shareholder stock holdings and changes, and regulations on unfair profit extraction by the head family. Accordingly, while performance was disclosed once a year previously, various internal changes must now be disclosed as they occur.
Regarding this large business designation, an Iljin Group official stated, "As the company has been designated as a large business, we will fulfill our social responsibilities commensurate with the size of the company," adding, "We will strive to become a global advanced parts and materials company representing the Republic of Korea."
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