SK Telecom Co, South Korea’s biggest mobile-phone carrier, submitted a bid to buy 20 percent of Hynix Semiconductor Inc amid a criminal investigation into whether the group’s founding family misused funds.
SK Telecom, the lone bidder, made its proposal before 5pm yesterday — the deadline set by Hynix main shareholders, Irene Kim, a Seoul-based spokeswoman for the carrier, said by telephone.
Hynix shareholders received one bid, said Lee Sun-hwan, a spokesman at Korea Exchange Bank.
A successful offer would give the carrier control of the world’s second--largest semiconductor maker and entry into the US$39-billion-a-year market for computer memory chips dominated by Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. It’s the fourth attempt in two years by Hynix shareholders to unload the stake, which they gained through a 2001 government-led bailout. The bid comes as chip prices fell to a record low.
“I struggle to see any logical reason why there are synergies between SK Telecom and Hynix,” said Shaun Cochran, head of Korea research at CLSA. “It’s clear from the unusual timing and nature of this decision that it’s not being driven from [the] shareholders’ perspective.”
Seoul authorities searched the offices of some SK Group affiliates on Tuesday while investigating whether funds were misappropriated. Chairman Chey Tae-won would prove his innocence, the group said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News.
Yonhap News reported that prosecutors have been investigating Chey, 50, since May to determine if he used money from SK companies to reduce personal losses from futures investments. Yonhap reported on Tuesday that Chey and his brother allegedly embezzled more than 100 billion won (US$88 million).
The investigation of Chey comes less than four years after South Korea’s highest court reaffirmed a suspended, three-year prison term for fraud. Chey later was pardoned by the government.
Hynix fell 2.5 percent to 21,500 won, the lowest level in three weeks, in Seoul yesterday on speculation the last likely bidder won’t proceed with an offer while entangled in a probe by prosecutors. SK Telecom declined 5.2 percent to 145,000 won, the biggest drop in more than two months.
Hynix had a market capitalization of 12.7 trillion won based on yesterday’s closing price. If the 20 percent stake shareholders want to sell fetches more than 2.6 trillion won, it would rank the share sale as the largest for a South Korean technology company since 1999, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Interest in the semiconductor maker comes as the benchmark DDR3 2-gigabit DRAM fell to US$0.75, the lowest level on record, according to data.
Samsung was the only manufacturer among the three biggest to post a profit last quarter from the semiconductor business.
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