Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, South Korea's 15th largest conglomerate by assets, said Monday its refining affiliate Hyundai Oilbank Co. filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with local bourse operator Korea Exchange.

Hyundai Oilbank aims to trade its shares on South Korea's main KOSPI market in the first half of 2022, the group said.

The proposed initial public offering is the third of its kind after the refiner failed to go public in 2012 and 2019.

In 2012, a tumble in oil prices thwarted Hyundai Oilbank's IPO.

Hyundai Oilbank suspended the IPO process again in 2019 when Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. sold a 17 percent stake in the refiner to Saudi Arabia's state-run oil firm Saudi Aramco for US $1.2 billion in a pre-IPO placement. (Yonhap)