GM General Motors Company

   By Kwanwoo Jun 
 

LG Energy Solution Ltd. shares surged in their debut on South Korea's stock exchange Thursday after a record initial public offering.

The listing of the electric-vehicle battery supplier for General Motors Co., Tesla Inc., Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co. followed a near $11 billion IPO--the largest ever in South Korea.

LG Energy shares opened at 597,000 won ($498.53) in their first day of trading, almost doubling the IPO price of KRW300,000.

The strong debut has made LG Energy the second-biggest listed company in South Korea with an estimated market capitalization of more than KRW120 trillion, behind that of tech giant Samsung Electronics Co.

LG Energy and parent LG Chem Ltd. earlier this month sold a combined 42.5 million LG Energy shares to raise KRW12.750 trillion in a heavily oversubscribed IPO, eclipsing the previous record of KRW4.9 trillion set by Samsung Life Insurance Co. in 2010.

LG Energy plans to use a bulk of the proceeds to boost its electric-vehicle battery output as it seeks to overtake the world's top battery maker, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. of China, in terms of market share.

GM and LG Energy agreed Tuesday to jointly build a $2.6 billion EV battery factory in Michigan--the third such joint-venture project in the U.S. following one in Ohio and another in Tennessee.

LG Energy shares were last trading at KRW490,000.

Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 26, 2022 19:48 ET (00:48 GMT)

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