[Photo by MK DB]

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South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corp. is proceeding to acquire world’s fourth-largest copper foil manufacturer Iljin Materials in a move to leapfrog in battery materials market.

Lotte Chemical announced in a disclosure on Wednesday that its board gave a go-ahead to a plan to acquire additional 100 new issues of Lotte Battery Materials USA Corporation (LBM) for 275 billion won.

LBM is speculated to have raised capital to acquire a controlling stake in Iljin Materials to expand its battery materials business. The acquisition deal however has not yet been confirmed and they are still n discussion, according to Lotte Chemical. The controlling stake of 53.3 percent is said to be asking for around 3 trillion won ($2 billion).

Iljin Materials manufactures copper foil, ultra-thin metal plate with a thickness of below 10 micrometers for secondary batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Lotte Chemical earlier announced a plan to invest 4 trillion won on battery materials through 2030 to achieve annual revenue of 5 trillion won.

Lotte Chemical shares were trading unchanged at 146,500 won in Seoul trading at 11:16 a.m. Thursday. Iljin Materials gained 3.45 percent to trade at 53,900 won.

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