SK hynix has officially decided to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the United States. Through this offering, the company plans to raise up to KRW 45.5 trillion (approximately USD 33 billion) to fund large-scale investments.
On June 24, SK hynix announced that its Board of Directors, with all outside directors in attendance, approved the issuance of new depositary receipts (DRs) through a third-party allotment. The offering will consist of up to 17.79 million shares. Based on the June 23 closing price of KRW 2,555,000 per common share, the total offering size could reach approximately KRW 45.45 trillion.
Each ADR will represent 0.1 common share. The final offering price will be determined through a book-building process involving overseas institutional investors. The ADRs are scheduled to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 10, while the newly issued shares are expected to be listed on July 29. The subscription and payment date is set for July 14.
All proceeds from the offering will be used for capital expenditures. Specifically, the funds will be allocated to △Construction of the first-phase fab (Y1) at the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster △Construction and equipment investment for the Cheongju P&T7 Advanced Packaging fab △Acquisition of machinery and facility investments, including Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) scanners
The joint global coordinators and lead underwriters are Bank of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Goldman Sachs Asia, and J.P. Morgan Securities. Citibank will serve as the overseas depositary bank, while the Korea Securities Depository (KSD) will act as the local custodian.
This announcement comes approximately seven months after SK hynix responded to a regulatory inquiry regarding its plans for a U.S. listing involving treasury shares in December of last year. The move is widely viewed as part of the company's strategy to strengthen its long-term competitiveness in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced packaging through large-scale funding from global capital markets.
Previously, on March 25, SK hynix disclosed that it had confidentially submitted a Form F-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in preparation for an ADR offering. The latest announcement formally confirms the company's decision to proceed with the ADR offering and Nasdaq listing.
An SK hynix representative stated, “The final offering size and listing schedule remain subject to change and will be determined following the SEC review process.”
