SK Hynix Inc.’s US listing is more than seven times oversubscribed, according to people familiar with the matter, as the South Korean memory chipmaker prepares to price its offering Thursday.
The sale of 177.9 million American depositary receipts has attracted demand from institutional investors including global long-only funds, technology sector-focused funds, sovereign wealth funds and Asia-focused global investors, some of the people said.
Each SK Hynix ADR is equivalent to a 10th of a common share, according to an earlier filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on Wednesday’s closing price in Seoul of 2.076 million won ($1,380) each, the US offering would raise about $24.5 billion.
Will SK Hynix's US ADR offering raise more than $25 billion?
At that size, the offering would rank among the largest ever debuts in the US by a foreign company, second only to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $25 billion debut.
The offering comes as the Korea-listed shares of SK Hynix as well as rivals such as US-listed Micron Technology Inc. have fallen sharply in recent days, as runaway enthusiasm for artificial intelligence infrastructure bets appeared to cool. SK Hynix shares declined 5.7% in Korea on Wednesday and are now down 30% from a record-high close in late June, though they remain roughly triple where they started the year.
