STX drops bid for Hynix stake

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- STX Group, a South Korean shipbuilding and shipping conglomerate, said Monday that it has decided to drop its bid to buy stakes in Hynix Semiconductor Inc., citing global uncertainties and the size of future investments needed to bolster competitiveness of the world's No. 2 memory chipmaker. STX Group and SK Group, another South Korean conglomerate, have been racing to buy a controlling 15 percent stake in Hynix, estimated at around 1.5 trillion won. Hynix Semiconductor's creditors-turned-shareholders plan to receive final bids for the chipmaker by Oct. 24 and will pick a preferred bidder in late October, according to the Korea Exchange Bank which is leading the sale of Hynix.