SK Hynix will wrap up bookbuilding for its $28 billion offering of American depositary receipts (ADRs) on Wednesday in U.S. time, after demand reportedly covered the sale multiple times, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Underwriters told investors the U.S. order book would be closed at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. The same source said that guidance on pricing would be issued after the close of trading in South Korea on Thursday, with allocations to be finalised later on Thursday in U.S. time.
The chipmaker noted in filings that it intends to set the final ADR price on Thursday and begin trading on the Nasdaq on July 10.
U.S.-based investors placed very large orders in the offering, the source said, with initial sizeable bids starting at about $200 million and some investors submitting orders in excess of $1 billion.
SK Hynix declined to comment to reporters. In a filing on Monday the company disclosed that Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited, investment funds managed by Coatue Management and Situational Awareness Partners have each separately indicated interest in purchasing up to a combined $7 billion of its U.S. ADRs.
Industry reporting first flagged that the ADR sale had been covered multiple times, and the strong investor response underscores continued interest in stakes of a major memory-chip producer even as global technology shares fell amid renewed conflict in the Middle East.
On Wednesday SK Hynix's shares slid, falling as much as 3.59% during the session.
The company launched the ADR sale on Monday, offering 17.79 million new ADRs, a transaction that places SK Hynix among the most valuable technology firms by deal size. The offering is expected to rank as the second-largest share sale when compared with a recent record $85.7 billion initial public offering, and it exceeds the size of Saudi Aramco's $25.6 billion IPO in 2019 and Alibaba's offering of similar size in 2014.
SK Hynix supplies high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems by customers including Nvidia and Alphabet Inc's Google. The ADR structure for the offering will represent ten ADRs for each common share, and a Monday filing set a reference price of 242,500 won per ADR, based on SK Hynix's July 3 closing price in Seoul.
Market context and mechanics
The planned timetable from underwriters separates U.S. book closure and the public disclosure of pricing guidance, aligning allocation finalisation to U.S. hours after the South Korean market close. The size of institutional interest reported for the deal - with large single-ticket orders starting around $200 million and some surpassing $1 billion - highlights demand concentration among major asset managers and funds.
Final notes
All scheduling, pricing and allocation steps remain subject to the timeline the company outlined in filings: final price setting on Thursday and Nasdaq commencement on July 10. The company has not offered additional comment beyond its filings and the statements disclosed in this report.