7 of the 8 Countries Approve the Deal
SK Hynix's acquisition of the NAND flash business from Intel unit has been approved by all major countries except China.
While China approved the acquisition of MagnaChip Semiconductor by a Chinese private equity fund management company in one month, it has been delaying SK Hynix's acquisition of the NAND-flash business from Intel for more than nine months.
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has unconditionally approved SK Hynix's deal with Intel.
An M&A deal involving global semiconductor companies must be approved by countries with interests. After signing a contract to acquire the NAND business from Intel for about 10 trillion won in October 2020, SK Hynix received approval for the deal from seven of the eight major countries, including the United States, the EU, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil and the U.K. Now China is the only country that has not yet finished a review.
Recently, China has deliberately delayed a review of deals between semiconductor companies in a protest of U.S. sanctions. Industry insiders believe that China intentionally delayed such reviews as part of retaliatory measures against the United States for the sanctions. In March, U.S. chipmaking equipment supplier Applied Materials abandoned a US$3.5 billion deal to acquire Japan’s Kokusai Electric as China delayed its review. U.S. financial media outlet Market Watch reported that China intentionally delayed its review of the deal to retaliate against U.S. sanctions.
SK Hynix is making all-out efforts to obtain approval from Chinese regulators. It is mobilizing a large law firm in China. The company is optimistic about receiving approval from China, given that the deal would result in a monopoly of the global NAND flash market.