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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] SK Hynix has officially announced that it disagrees with the merger between Japan's KIOXIA, the world's second and fourth-largest NAND flash memory maker, and Western Digital (WD) in the U.S.
SK Hynix said in its third-quarter earnings announcement on the 26th, "We do not agree with the case, considering the overall impact of this merger on the value of assets invested in KIOXIA." This is the first time SK Hynix has officially commented on the merger between the two companies. However, an official at SK Hynix said in a further explanation, "Disagreeing does not mean that we disagree, but that we are currently in the process of not making a decision."
SK Hynix invested 395 billion yen (about 3.6 trillion won) in Bain Capital Fund when Bain Capital, a US private equity fund (PEF) operator, acquired KIOXIA in 2018. 266 billion yen is in the form of convertible bonds (CB) that can be invested in Bain Capital Fund and the remaining 129 billion yen can be converted into stocks.
Even if SK Hynix agrees with the merger, the prevailing view in the semiconductor industry is that it will be difficult to pass the anti-trust review by South Korea or China. According to market research firm TrendForce, the global NAND market share in the second quarter of this year will change in the order of Samsung Electronics (31.1%), KIOXIA (19.6%), SK Hynix (17.8%), and Western Digital (14.7%).
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
