LG Energy Solution Ltd., a battery supplier for General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc., is testing investor demand for a potential dollar-denominated sale of green bonds as the South Korean firm seeks to slash its carbon emissions.
The company mandated Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Plc and Korea Development Bank on Tuesday in Asia to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings starting Aug. 30, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. An offering of green bonds maturing in three and five years may follow if market conditions allow, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the details are private.
The firm could raise $1 billion from the sale, Reuters reported earlier, citing two people familiar with the matter. LG Energy said it will decide whether to issue the debt after reviewing market conditions.
“No specifics have been decided regarding the scale,” the firm said in an emailed statement.
LG Energy was incorporated in December of 2020 after being split-off from LG Chem. LG Chem was last in the market with a dollar bond in July 2022, when it garnered orders for over $1 billion for a $300 million green bond sale.
Proceeds from green bonds will be used to fund a range of eligible projects, including construction of manufacturing facilities for batteries for pure electric vehicles, waste battery recycling and energy efficiency initiatives, according to the firm’s green financing framework. LG Energy plans to convert 100% of electric power used at its domestic and overseas business sites to renewable energy by 2030, according to the framework.
The company revised its 2023 revenue growth target to mid-30%, up from a previous goal of 25% to 30% announced in January. LG’s second-quarter profit was inflated by tax credits doled out by US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA. Citigroup analysts expect a string of potential investments linked to IRA, the biggest climate legislation in American history, to help boost sales of ESG bonds in the US into year-end and 2024.
Read more: ESG BOND WEEKLY: Citi Sees US Sales Slump ‘Temporary’ Amid IRA
--With assistance from Ameya Karve.
(Updates with LG energy response in third and fourth paragraphs.)