SK Hynix plans to raise 25,922 million with entry on Wall Street

A company plans to issue up to 17.79 million new ordinary shares that will serve as collateral for US deposit certificates (ADR), which represent shares of a foreign company in Nasdaq, according to a report published in the ‘site’ of the South Korean corporate regulatory information repository.

The company, however, clarified that it will determine the exact amount of the issue of new shares only after the completion of the demand assessment process.

According to the world’s second largest manufacturer of memory chips, ADRs will be quoted on July 10 in Nasdaq and the new shares will be listed on the 29th of the same month on the South Korean stock exchange, although the dates are subject to change.

If the maximum amount indicated is determined, the transaction exceeds the stock exchange record of a foreign company, which belongs to the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, with 21,800 million dollars (19,221 million euros) in 2014.

SK hynix dethroned, on Monday and Tuesday, its rival Samsung Electronics in ordinary stock market capitalization on the Seoul Stock Exchange. The world’s largest manufacturer of memory chips had led the industry for 26 consecutive years.

However, Samsung Electronics, which regained its first position today, contested this interpretation, arguing that a company's market value should also include its preferred shares.

In the report, SK Hynix stated that it will allocate funds raised for investment in facilities, including a factory in a semiconductor cluster currently under construction in Yongin, south of Seoul, as well as an advanced packaging unit and machinery acquisition.

The announcement appears on the same day that the South Korean Government stated that it is considering a second semiconductor ‘cluster’. According to industry sources cited by the MBC station, SK hynix is assessing the possibility of investing in this project as well to install chip production and packaging plants.

SK hynix, Nvidia's key supplier, recorded an increase of almost 900% in Kospi, the main South Korean stock exchange index, over the past year, driven by its leadership in high bandwidth memories (HBM).