Hynix's ownership may become further complicated if it proceeds with a 1 trillion won new share sale that it promised creditors it would sell to raise cash to pay down debt.
Time may also not be on the side of the former Hyundai Electronics Industries. Estimates by UBS Warburg and other securities companies predict it will run short of cash again as early as the second quarter.
Hanvit's Kim declined to confirm a local newspaper report that said Micron, the second-largest maker of memory chips, offered to buy Hynix 's memory-chip business.
Micron offered to buy its rival's chip plants by swapping its shares for Hynix shares, the Korean Economic Daily paper said, citing comments made by Park Chong-sup, the Korean company's chief executive, at a meeting with creditors last night. An initial non-binding agreement will be signed within two weeks, the report said.
"A memorandum of understanding is going to take longer than this week," said Lee Youn-soo, chief credit corporate credit officer at main creditor Korea Exchange Bank, which led two multibillion dollar bailouts of the company last year. "Nothing has been decided on a valuation."
Micron spokesman Sean Mahoney declined to comment on the report. Kim Seung-soo, his counterpart at Hynix, also declined to comment. Creditor banks, are viewing the proposal "positively," the paper said, citing an unidentified official on the Hynix restructuring committee.
Online electronics trade publication EBN said Micron had offered between US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion for seven Hynix plants. The article did not cite its sources.
RSS