Samsung SDI shareholders on Monday agreed to spin off the company’s chemicals business into a new affiliate called SDI Chemical, that will be sold to Lotte Chemical within the first half of this year.

The battery-making unit of Samsung Group said it will focus more on its flagship business to cater to electric vehicles.

Samsung SDI CEO Cho Nam-seong told shareholders the company would invest 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion) into the electric vehicle battery business over the next five years.

The shareholders meeting came after Samsung SDI announced in October that it would sell its chemicals business to Lotte Chemical, an affiliate of retail giant Lotte Group, for 2.58 trillion won.

In a separate regulatory filing, the company said it posted 80.8 billion won in operating loss in the fourth quarter last year, down from 37.2 billion won earnings a year ago. Sales were 1.86 trillion won in the quarter, a 2.53 percent fall.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)