SEOUL/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Battery material maker SK IE Technology Co Ltd (South Korea’s SKIET) raised $2 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) which attracted the hottest demand ever for a deal in South Korea, the company said in a statement Monday. SKIET’s shares were priced at 105,000 won each which was the top of the range announced in a regulatory filing last month to raise about 2.2 trillion won ($1.98 billion). The listing, which parent company SK Innovation Co Ltd said will take place on May 11, will be the biggest in South Korea since gaming company Netmarble Corp raised 2.7 trillion won in its IPO in May 2017, according to Korea Exchange data. The pricing values the battery material maker at 7.5 trillion won, which analysts said should be enough lift the company into the benchmark KOSPI 200 index. A total of 1,734 domestic and foreign institutional investors placed bids, SKIET’s filing showed, valuing total bids at 2,417 trillion won. The parent company, SK Innovation, said the institutional book for the IPO was almost 2,000 times covered - the largest ever for an IPO in South Korea. The IPO comes as global sales of battery-powered electric cars are expected to have reached nearly 2.5 million in 2020 and to rise by 70% in 2021, according to IHS Markit. SKIET will offer about 8.6 million new shares in the IPO, raising about 898 billion won. SKIET supplies battery separators, a key component in lithium-ion batteries, for battery makers including SK Innovation, LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI Co Ltd, Panasonic Corp, among others. SK Innovation, will offer 12.8 million existing shares in SKIET, worth about 1.3 trillion won. The parent company will own 61% of SKIET after the listing. “Money raised through issuance of new shares will be used for our capital expenditure investment,” Rho Jae-sok, CEO of SKIET said during a press conference last week, adding that the company plans to execute about 700-800 billion won worth of annual capex spending for a while.