SEOUL -- LG Chem, a chemical unit of South Korea's LG Group, will invest 150 billion won ($134 million) in a fund that would find and incubate companies with technologies and growth potentials in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), a trendy corporate operation method that focuses on the use of green energy and environmentally-friendly management.
LG Chem will become a core investor in the KBE (Korea Battery & ESG) fund managed by IMM Credit Solution, a domestic private equity fund management company, which aims to raise more than 400 billion won. The fields preferentially being reviewed are core materials for electric vehicle batteries, recycling core metals for batteries, recycling polymer products such as waste plastics, and biodegradable plastic technologies.
"This investment will become the stepping stone for LG Chem to strengthen the ESG industrial ecosystem together with prospective SMEs and medium-sized corporations, and to continuously discover future growth engines," LG Chem CEO Shin Hak-cheol said in a statement on May 11. The company has expanded the production of battery raw materials and biodegradable plastics following the spin-off of its battery wing in December 2020.