Overview
- SK Hynix completed an American Depositary Receipt offering that raised about $26.5 billion, with ADRs priced at $149, oversubscribed by more than seven times and jumping roughly 13% on their Nasdaq debut.
- When Seoul markets reopened, Korea-listed SK Hynix shares plunged as much as about 15%, helping drive a steep Kospi decline and triggering automatic 20-minute trading halts.
- Traders and analysts said the sell-off reflected profit-taking after the U.S. listing, extra share supply from the offering, and valuation and arbitrage frictions between ADRs and domestic shares.
- Company officials say most proceeds will fund domestic investments such as the Yongin semiconductor cluster, and a large dollar-to-won conversion is expected though the timing and scale remain undecided.
- The move widens U.S. investor access and raises the prospect of index-driven flows into SK Hynix while also heightening short-term risks from FX swings, execution challenges for new fabs, and near-term earnings and shipment uncertainty for HBM products.