Zaigle Completes Acquisition of Secondary Battery LFP Battery Business... Plans to Establish Gigascale Factory

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Zaigle, an eco-friendly healthcare specialized company, announced on the 29th that it has completed the acquisition of the secondary battery business by paying the remaining balance for the secondary battery new business contract in one day.

Zaigle had previously announced that it would enter a new business by acquiring all tangible and intangible assets related to secondary batteries and manufacturing research know-how.

A Zaigle official stated, “This acquisition includes tangible and intangible assets as well as accumulated research achievements. The acquisition amount covers not only the transfer of the transferor’s long-term research achievements and development process technology but also manufacturing equipment and research facilities worth hundreds of billions of won that have been practically invested over several years.” He added, “Since the transfer was made based on mutual understanding of the business between the parties, the assets have great value that cannot be simply evaluated at the announced appraised price.”

Zaigle has gained an opportunity to participate in a large-scale project involving ESS facilities for a US telecommunications company, which has led to the full-scale promotion of the secondary battery business. By securing original LFP battery technology, Zaigle plans to establish a giga-scale factory and actively enter domestic and international markets.

Early next month, Zaigle plans to conduct consultations in the US with buyers and investors for battery orders and investment attraction. Currently, global investors are already anticipating the LFP battery market, where supply is insufficient compared to demand, and are requesting investments and technical consultations for establishing manufacturing plants in Korea, the US, and third countries. The giga-scale production facility for full-scale mass production of LFP batteries is expected to be promoted alongside overseas investment attraction.

Zaigle’s LFP batteries have high energy density and charge-discharge efficiency comparable to MCN systems, with safety and economic advantages. The research team has been developing technology through designs that avoid patent infringement for over 10 years. Compared to the widely used Chinese-made lithium iron phosphate batteries, Zaigle’s batteries can achieve performance improvements of up to 150%, and are evaluated as technology that is at least 5 to 10 years ahead of existing technologies. Based on this technology, significant progress has also been made in the original technology for manufacturing batteries using sodium ions, which do not require expensive lithium or nickel.

Batteries are important energy storage devices in future energy systems such as generators, wind turbines, solar power, electric vehicles, and ESS. Zaigle plans to strengthen its business with differentiated technology and competitive products in a market where supply is insufficient compared to demand.

According to related industries, despite the safety and marketability of lithium iron phosphate batteries, active research and development as well as production have been almost nonexistent in countries other than China due to the existence of original patents. With the expiration of major lithium iron phosphate original patents by the end of last year and this year, development and research have become active, and the market is expected to be fully revitalized.

Zaigle’s research team said, “Our LFP batteries apply independently developed cathode materials, achieving more than 1.5 times the efficiency compared to global technologies. At the same time, batteries using Na ions have been developed to achieve an energy density of about 90% compared to initial LFP batteries. They are economical as they do not require high-purity nickel or lithium, and enable the manufacture of high-density, high-energy batteries, which we believe will expand the market with safe batteries.” They added, “Having directly manufactured and completed years of experiments on site, we have the mass production technology know-how for productization. Our developed Na ion, which uses ions common in seawater, can be manufactured very cheaply and safely produced and distributed, making it a promising alternative for future batteries.”

They continued, “With differentiated technology that is among the world’s most advanced, Zaigle’s secondary battery business can grow in a different direction from existing large corporations by expanding the market through the giga-scale factory expansion of LFP batteries and then supplying Na ion batteries, which have similar production mechanisms but proprietary process technology, to the market first. Based on unique chemical base technology, we are confident that Zaigle’s secondary batteries will establish themselves as world-class technology.”