Creditors pushing for resale of Hynix Semiconductor

SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- Creditors of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said Monday they
will again seek to sell part of their stake in the world's second-largest memory
chip maker through an open bidding process.

The move comes after Hyosung Group, a mid-sized South Korean conglomerate,
decided Thursday to drop its bid for a 28.07-percent stake in Hynix Semiconductor
amid rumors its political ties influenced the bid.
"A shareholder consultive meeting will make a decision on the resale issue by
Nov. 25," a creditor bank official said. "An open bid will be held should 75
percent or more of the shareholders vote for it."
Creditors will then receive letters of intent from prospective buyers by Dec. 15,
the official said, adding that if no potential buyer comes forward, stakes would
be sold through block sales, or selling large amounts of shares to major
investors on the market.
"In that case, creditors will push to sell stakes of 10-15 percent, while
retaining an interest large enough to exercise managerial control," the official
said.
In an open bidding in September, Hyosung was the sole bidder. But rumors have run
rampant that the bidding was influenced by in-law relations between President Lee
Myung-bak and the Hyosung chairman.
An official at Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), which manages the stake sale, said now
is the right time to sell the stake as Hynix reported its first net profit in two
years in the third quarter of this year.
Net profit stood at 246.3 billion won (US$213 million) in the July-September
period, compared with a 1.67 trillion won loss a year earlier. Sales rose 15
percent to 2.12 trillion won, with operating profit reaching 209.3 billion won.
Hynix was put under joint supervision by creditors in October 2001 as a slump in
the global chip market plunged it into a credit crunch. KEB and other creditors
injected $4.6 billion to bail out Hynix by swapping the chipmaker's debts for
equity between 2001 and 2002.
Hynix ended its debt workout program in May 2005. Creditors have retained a
controlling stake since then, selling only a portion