Chairman Chey: “Money flows into ESG.”

Affiliates holding “One More Round”

To meet power demand with 100% renewable energy by 2050

“Nowadays, most of the money flows into ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance).”

ESG and BM (Business Model) will be the main topics of the SK Group in 2021. According to a spokesperson of the SK Group on November 18, Chairman Chey Tae-won said in an SK CEO seminar held in Jeju last month that “50% of investments in Europe are being made in funds related to ESG, and the weight of those in the US exceeded 25%,” stressing that “most of the money is flowing into ESG nowadays considering the fact that the life of the funds is about 7 years.” With the increasing interest of investors in ESG, the trend of ESG has become the mainstay in corporate management. As Chairman Chey emphasized the importance of ESG once again, the affiliate companies of the SK Group are holding “One More Round,” which refers to the procedure of reflecting the ideas of Chairman Chey to next year’s business plan.  

This year, the SK Group materialized several specific ESG strategies, the most representative of which is that 8 affiliates in the SK Group joined “RE100” for the first time in Korea. “RE100” stands for “100% Renewable Energy,” and it means that the companies have pledged to become 100% powered by renewable energy such as wind power, photovoltaic power generation, etc. SK E&C has recently acquired EMC Holdings, the No. 1 waste treatment company in Korea, and SK E&S was selected as business operator for the development of the 2,640,000㎡photovoltaic power generation complex in the Saemangeum Reclamation Site.  

In addition to ESG, SK is planning to take the initiative in aggressive BM innovation. As part of the effort for such bold BM innovation, SK hynix struck a deal to acquire the NAND Flash Memory business division of Intel for KRW 10.310 trillion, the largest in the history of M&A by a Korean company.  

According to Chairman Chey, SKC is the most successful company in the SK Group in BM innovation. In order to change the existing business portfolio composed mainly of electronic materials and beauty & healthcare businesses _ base_d on chemical business, SKC has recently sold out all the shares in SK bioland, a subsidiary of the company, and it is focusing on copper foil as a core material of EV battery. In doing so, the company is actively improving its competitiveness in mobility, semiconductor, and environment-friendly areas. As a result, SKC has recorded sales of KRW 723.7 billion and operating income of KRW 55.3 billion during the third quarter of this year, which are higher by 20% and 44%, respectively, than the same quarter last year.

“Despite the difficulties due to COVID-19, ESG management and BM innovation have become the supreme tasks for companies to become attractive,” a spokesperson of the SK Group said.   

Reporter Soo-Gi Lee (lee.sooki@joongang.co.kr)