Lotte Rental invests over $20 mn in self-driving startup ahead of IPO debut

[Source: Lotte Rental Co.]

South Korea’s No. 1 car rental business Lotte Rental Co. will invest 25 billion won ($21.76 million) in autonomous driving startup 42dot to add value to the corporate identify as a mobility platform before its Kospi debut on Aug.19.

The rental unit under Lotte Group announced Monday that it has pledged an equity investment of 25 billion won in self-driving startup 42dot.

Under the deal, Lotte Rental and 42dot will begin test runs of autonomous vehicles in Jeju Island in the second half of this year. The two companies will launch an electric vehicles car-sharing sub-brand and a cargo delivery service running on self-driving vehicles and EVs.

The investment announcement comes ten days before the company’s trading debut on the country’s main Kospi bourse. The company is looking to raise 850.9 billion won via the IPO.

Last week, Lotte Rental priced its IPO of 14.42 million shares at the top end of its indicative price range of 47,000-59,000 won after receiving an oversubscription of 217.6 times from institutions.

The two-day public subscription for Lotte Rental Shares kicked off on Monday, drawing 1.33 trillion won in public subscription deposits on the first day with an average subscription rate of 10.43 to 1.

The competition rate at Samsung Securities was the highest with 36.15 to 1, followed by Mirae Asset Securities with 26.5 to 1 and Hana Financial Investment with 13.42 to 1.

Many investors are expected to wait until last minute to choose one brokerage with the least competition rate as multiple subscriptions have been banned.

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