Creditors may delay Hynix sale into June

SEOUL (Yonhap) - Creditors of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said Monday that they may kick off the process to sell a major stake in the second-largest computer memory chipmaker next month, delaying the sale from their previous schedule.
Creditors, including Korea Exchange Bank, Woori Bank and state-run Korea Finance Corp., had initially planned to start the process to sell their combined 15 percent stake in Hynix in late May.
The creditors will postpone the sale until June due to more time needed to study the chipmaker's balance sheet and reach an agreement among the lenders over how to sell the stake, according to the banks. A lack of investor interest has also contributed to the delay, they said.
"Creditors need more time for conducting a due diligence and discussing sale methods," an official at one bank said. "The sale announcement is forecast to come during next month."
Shares of Hynix traded 0.78 percent lower on the Seoul main bourse as of 9:07 a.m. from Friday's close.
The plan to sell the major Hynix shares followed the creditors' failed attempts in the past to find an owner for the chipmaker.
Volatile business conditions in the chip sector and the huge amount of investment needed to lead a chipmaker had caused any potential buyers to shun bidding for Hynix.
In a bid to lure interest, creditors will come up with more inducement for potential buyers in taking over the chipmaker, they said.
The creditors took control of Hynix after receiving shares in return for rescue funds injected in 2001 to bail the chipmaker out of a cash shortage triggered by slumping chip sales.
Earnings of Hynix tumbled 66.2 percent to 273.5 billion won (US$218.5 million) in the first quarter from a year earlier, weighed by chip price falls.