WCP is planning for an IPO next year. But its parent company W-Scope’s patent lawsuit with Japan’s Asahi Kasei will likely dictate how successful going public will be.
The Japanese company filed the lawsuit against W-Scope last year in January in South Korea.
Asahi Kasei is hoping to stop W-Scope from manufacturing and selling battery separators and asking for damages of 2 billion won.
W-Scope has filed a suit in March that year to invalidate the patent but the district court rejected the request. The suit is in appeals court.
If W-Scope loses the patent lawsuit, this will likely hamper the planned IPO of its subsidiary WCP.
But if it wins, it will be able to rival SK IE Technology as a local separator supplier to battery-making conglomerates.
WCP was founded in 2005 by ex-Samsung Electronics employee Choi Won-kun.
W-Scope, which its listed in Japan, owns a 100% stake in the company.
WCP supplies its separators to Samsung SDI.
Earlier this month, Halla Holdings invested 100 billion won into WCP. Halla said it saw huge growth potential in WCP from its collaboration with Samsung SDI in Europe.
Last year, WCP recorded 111.8 billion won in sales and 9.7 billion won in operating income.
