South Korea's Minister of Finance and Economy Jeon Yun-churl yesterday urged the creditors of Hynix Semiconductor Inc to quickly complete the proposed sale of the ailing chipmaker.
Micron Technology Inc of the US has signed a tentative accord to take over debt-ridden Hynix, but South Korean creditors have yet to approve it.
"Creditors will take care of the issue, but it is desirable to handle it quickly to remove market concerns," Jeon told reporters.
But supplier firms of Hynix yesterday joined Hynix employees and minor shareholders in opposing the proposed merger between the world's second largest memory chip maker, Micron, and the third biggest, Hynix.
Hynix unions are threatening to strike over the deal.
Micron would become the world's largest memory chip maker under the deal. Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea is the current market leader.
Under a non-binding accord announced Monday, Micron agreed to buy Hynix memory chip operations with 108.6 million Micron shares and to pay US$200 million for a 15 percent stake in Hynix's non-memory business.
Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), a chief Hynix creditor, claimed yesterday the proposed deal with Micron would allow creditors to recover up to 45.2 percent of the total loans to the ailing chipmaker.
Hynix has borrowed a total of 9.57 trillion won (US$7.3 billion) -- 6.57 trillion won in loans and 2.99 trillion won in convertible bonds -- from financial institutions, KEB said in a statement on the deal.
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