Hynix's $28B US Listing Got 7x More Love Than KOSPI Gave It This Week 📈

SK Hynix's $28 billion US share sale drew orders for more than seven times the available shares, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters, even as South Korea's KOSPI briefly slid into a technical bear market. Steep losses in SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics shares dragged the index down during the same week global institutional investors piled into the chipmaker's dollar offering. The order book attracted global long-only funds, sovereign wealth funds, and Asia-focused institutional investors, with demand holding steady through the week's volatility. Baillie Gifford, Coatue Management, and Situational Awareness Partners indicated interest for as much as $7 billion combined, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. SK Hynix shares jumped in Seoul on Thursday, July 9, alongside the KOSPI, while underwriters including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase told investors pricing would be set after the local market closed, with allocations to follow later Thursday in US time.

The KOSPI tumbled 5.35% on Wednesday to close at 7,246.79, placing it more than 20% below its recent record high and crossing the bear market threshold before rebounding nearly 4% by Thursday's open. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix now account for roughly half of the KOSPI's total weight, up from about a quarter at the end of last year, according to eToro market analyst Zavier Wong. "A sharp move in either name drags the whole index with it before the other roughly nine hundred listed companies get a say," Wong said. Samsung forecast a nearly 19-fold profit jump this week, yet its stock still fell, and Wall Street remains split on the broader AI chip pullback, with JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley staking out opposite bets on the cycle.

The offering trails only SpaceX's $85.7 billion IPO last month and ranks as the world's second-biggest share sale this year. It also lands the same week UBS told clients to buy SK Hynix's ADRs and sell its Seoul stock, betting the US shares would trade at a premium. SK Hynix will begin when-issued trading Friday on the Nasdaq under the symbol SKHYV, with regular trading set to start July 13 under the ticker SKHY, despite the stock being down over the last five days.