By Kane Wu
SINGAPORE, July 8 (Reuters) – SK Hynix will close bookbuilding for its $28 billion offering of American depositary receipts (ADRs) on Wednesday U.S. time, as orders have already covered its books multiple times, said a source with knowledge of the matter.
Underwriters of the South Korean chipmaker’s offering, one of the world’s largest new share sales ever, told investors books would close at 4 p.m., U.S. Eastern Time, and pricing guidance would come after the Thursday close of the South Korean market, with allocations finalised later Thursday U.S. time, the source said.
SK Hynix had said in filings it would set the final price of the ADR offering on Thursday and start trading on the Nasdaq on July 10.
U.S.-based investors came in with chunky orders starting in the range of $200 million, the source said, adding larger orders exceeded $1 billion.
SK Hynix declined to comment.
It said on Monday 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.
IFR first reported on Tuesday SK Hynix’s ADR offering was multiple times covered.
The buoyant response from investors reflects strong demand still for a piece of one of the world’s largest chipmakers, even as global tech stocks dived amid renewed conflict in the Middle East.
SK Hynix shares lost as much as 3.59% on Wednesday.
The company launched the ADR sale on Monday, offering 17.79 million new shares, making it one of the world’s most valuable tech firms.
The deal is expected to be the second-biggest share sale after a record $85.7 billion initial public offering by SpaceX last month, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion IPO in 2019 and Alibaba’s similar-sized offering in 2014.
SK Hynix is a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI systems by customers such as Nvidia and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
Ten ADRs will represent one common share and a Monday filing gave a reference price of 242,500 won per ADR, based on SK Hynix’s July 3 closing price in Seoul.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in Singapore; Additional reporting by Hyun Joo Jin in Seoul; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
