Key points
- SK Hynix guided its Nasdaq ADR offering to $149 each, a 3.1% premium to Thursday's Seoul close of 2,186,000 won, about $1,445 per common share once you adjust for the exchange ratio.
- The deal covers 177.9 million ADRs, worth about $26.5 billion at the guided price, and was more than 7 times oversubscribed.
- Three anchor investors, Baillie Gifford, Coatue, and Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Partners, committed up to $7 billion combined.
- Shares begin trading Friday, July 10, on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker SKHY.
SK Hynix just told investors it plans to price its Nasdaq debut at $149 per depositary receipt, according to Bloomberg. The interesting part is the direction of the move. That's a 3.1% premium to Thursday's close in Seoul, above the home-market price rather than below it. Deals usually get priced at or below where the stock already trades, to make sure the new shares actually sell. Pricing above it is what happens when a book is running hot.
The math behind the premium
Each SK Hynix ADR represents one-tenth of a common share, so $149 a piece works out to $1,490 per full share. Thursday's close in Seoul was 2,186,000 won, close to $1,445 at Thursday's exchange rate. That gap, $1,490 versus $1,445, is the 3.1% premium Bloomberg is reporting.
The offering itself covers 177.9 million ADRs. At $149 each, that's roughly $26.5 billion raised, on top of the roughly $28 billion figure SK Hynix gave when it confirmed the listing on July 6. It's still on track to be the largest first-time US fundraising any foreign company has done, ahead of Alibaba's 2014 debut.
Who's actually buying
Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan led the offering, joined by nine more underwriters. The book pulled in long-only funds, dedicated tech investors, sovereign wealth funds, and Asia-focused money managers. By Thursday, total orders reportedly reached about $171.5 billion, more than 7 times the shares on offer.
Three names anchored the deal specifically: Baillie Gifford, Coatue, and Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Partners, together good for up to $7 billion. We wrote about that last group's involvement on July 7, since Situational Awareness's own 13F shows its biggest disclosed position is a bet against semiconductor stocks broadly, plus a separate bet against Micron (MU) specifically. A fund leaning against chips elsewhere in its book just helped anchor one of the largest chip offerings in history. Oversubscription at this level suggests that tension didn't scare off the rest of the book.
What happens Friday
Trading starts Friday, July 10, on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker SKHY, on an interim basis before regular trading begins the following Monday once the offering formally closes. We covered the mechanics of buying SKHY once it lists here. The real test now is where the stock actually opens Friday relative to the $149 guide. An open significantly above that price would confirm the demand this pricing already implies. A soft open would suggest the book got pushed further than real demand wanted to go.
This is general market commentary, not investment advice. Pricing details are based on Bloomberg's reporting ahead of Thursday's final terms and can still change before the deal formally closes.
