이 기사는 2021년 11월 23일 08:05 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s Hyundai Mobis has made an 86.9 billion won ($73.2 million) loss on paper for the three quarters of this year as shares of its strategic partner Velodyne Lidar continued to slump after reporting widening net losses.

The value of its investment in the US-based lidar technology company was 34.2 billion won at the end of September, a 71.7% decline from 121.1 billion won at the beginning of this year. Velodyne was the only company among Hyundai Mobis’s open innovation partners to have caused unrealized losses this year.

This contrasts with last year when the value of the investment in Velodyne more than doubled from 58.7 billion won to 121.1 billion won on the South Korean auto part supplier’s balance sheet. Hyundai Mobis announced a strategic partnership with Velodyne in 2019, with its 58.9 billion won investment in the US firm.

The large increase in the unrealized gain in 2020 was due to a sharp rise in Velodyne’s shares after the US presidential election. The stock price of the lidar tech company soared from $12.26 at the beginning of November of that year to above $20 in the following month, largely driven by the Biden administration’s clean energy transition plan.

However, shares in Velodyne has continued to decline this year, with its widening net losses – which increased from 79.4 billion won in 2019 to 121.3 billion won in 2020 – putting pressure on the stock price, which sank to a record low of $6.05 last week.

Hyundai Mobis has made it clear that the stock movement of Velodyne will not affect their strategic partnership. “Hyundai Mobis and Velodyne continue to work together to develop lidar sensors,” an official at Hyundai Mobis said.

Hyundai Mobis revealed a plan in 2019 to mass produce level 3 autonomous driving lidar systems in partnership with Velodyne to supply them to the Asian market and gradually expand to other markets.

Global demand for lidar sensors would increase if more automakers adopt lidar systems. Audi is among global auto brands that started shipping some models with lidar sensors. BMW also plans to launch its level 3 self-driving cars with lidar as soon as the fourth quarter of this year.

“We will position ourselves to be fully prepared for a potential jump in demand for libar sensors globally,” the Hyundai Mobis official said. (Reporting by Seo-young Kim)