SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is slated to attend SK hynix’s highly anticipated Nasdaq debut ceremony in New York this week. This significant event marks the chipmaker’s strategic move to engage global investors, showcasing its robust leadership in the burgeoning AI memory business.
Joining Chairman Chey at the pivotal Friday morning event will be SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung and other top senior executives, according to reliable industry sources speaking on Thursday.
This critical gathering is expected to provide SK hynix’s leadership with a prime opportunity to brief prominent investors on its cutting-edge AI memory innovations and articulate its ambitious long-term growth strategies.
Chairman Chey’s presence underscores SK hynix’s concerted effort to transcend its traditional image as a conventional memory chipmaker, instead emphasizing its crucial and expanding role within the global AI supply chain.
In “Super Momentum,” a compelling book published in January detailing SK hynix’s breakthrough success in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, Chey candidly noted that the market often still perceives the company as a commodity chipmaker, failing to fully recognize its true value. He was also quoted as saying SK hynix “must grow tenfold from where it is now,” a vision the Nasdaq listing aims to propel.
The eagerly awaited listing follows an exceptionally strong demand observed for its American Depositary Receipt (ADR) offering.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that preliminary orders for the offering remarkably surpassed the available shares by more than seven times. The meticulously managed order book successfully attracted a diverse array of major financial players, including global long-only funds, specialized technology-focused funds, influential sovereign wealth funds, and leading Asia-focused global investors.
The total indicative value of these overwhelming orders was estimated at an impressive $171.5 billion. Bookrunners successfully closed the order book on Wednesday at 4 p.m., with the final offering price anticipated to be officially determined later on Thursday.
SK hynix plans to strategically issue up to 17.79 million new shares for its landmark ADR listing, which represents approximately 2.5 percent of its total outstanding shares. The ultimate offering size and total proceeds generated will be contingent upon the final pricing and allocation results.
Initially, discussions around the deal had projected an offering value of approximately $29 billion at its upper range. Should the pricing align with SK hynix’s Wednesday closing price of 2.08 million won ($1,382), the company is projected to successfully raise approximately $24.5 billion.
This slightly lower estimate reflects a recent, albeit temporary, pullback in SK hynix shares. The stock had previously achieved a record high of 2.99 million won on June 25 before experiencing a slight dip. Wednesday’s closing price stood at 30.5 percent below that peak.
Market watchers attributed these fluctuations to broader concerns regarding the concentrated investment of capital in the semiconductor sector, which appeared to exert some pressure on the shares.
Nevertheless, even at an estimated $24.5 billion, SK hynix’s ADR listing is poised to be recognized as the second-largest U.S. listing by a foreign company in history, closely following Alibaba Group’s monumental $25 billion debut.
SK hynix is committed to strategically deploying the substantial proceeds from this listing. These funds will be allocated towards financing the crucial first fabrication plant (fab) at the sprawling Yongin semiconductor cluster, the advanced Cheongju P&T7 packaging fab, and the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment, including essential extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography scanners.
The ADRs are scheduled to commence initial trading on Friday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the highly visible ticker SKHYV, before seamlessly transitioning to regular trading on Monday.
Chairman Chey’s itinerary following the momentous listing ceremony is also attracting significant attention. Industry sources suggest he may actively seek strategic meetings with top executives from leading global tech giants, including Nvidia and Tesla, during his impactful US visit.
yeeun
