An article appearing in Korea IT Times reported that SK Lubricants, who announced last October that it planned to raise at least US$1.3 billion in an IPO during the first half of 2013, may be unable to float the planned IPO presently. The planned offering, projected to be in the range of $1.3-$1.8 billion, could be one of the biggest Korean deals of 2013. The SK Lubricants sale would rank behind Hyundai Oilbank's planned $2 billion IPO in terms of size among local offerings

Unfortunately, the group's first-half net profit plunged, making it harder for the company to list its shares within the year's end. The SK Group company said on August 14 in a regulatory filing that it's sales revenue was 1,407 billion won (US$1,263 million) and an operating profit of 34.8 billion won for the first and second quarters of this year. Its first-half operating profit was only a sixth of the operating profit from a year ago. Its net profit also fell to only a seventh of the first half in 2012. For the fourth quarter 2012, SK Lubricants reported an operating loss of 28.6 billion South Korean won, down from a 94.5 billion won operating profit in the year-earlier period.

Estimated at more than 1 trillion won in subscription volume, SK Lubricants, wholly owned by South Korea's largest oil refiner SK Innovation, has been preparing for the IPO since last year.

An SK Innovation official said, "The business of SK Lubricants has been slower than expected due to the global economic slowdown. We will keep watching the market conditions for IPO timing," suggesting that the company has not given up the hope of listing SK Lubricants shares.

SK operates a 40,000 barrel per day API Group II and III base oil plant at its Ulsan Complex, Korea which includes a 26,000 barrel per day joint venture base oil plant built by SK Innovation and JX Nippon Oil & Energy. SK also has a 65/35 majority ownership in a joint venture base oil plant with Indonesia's PT Pertamina in Dumai, Sumatra, Indonesia with a capacity to produce 10,000 bpd API Group III base oils and a 70/30 majority ownership in a joint venture not-yet-completed 13,300 bpd Group III plant with Spain's Repsol in Cartagena, Spain, expected to come on stream the end of next year.