이 기사는 2022년 01월 04일 08시04분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SK Hynix has completed the first closing of its purchase of Intel’s NAND memory chip business after securing all antitrust approvals, getting a step closer to the completion of the largest deal in the South Korean mergers and acquisitions market’s history.

SK Hynix acquired the US chipmaker’s NAND solid-state drive business (SSD) business and the Dalian facility with the first payment of $7 billion, the company said in a filing on December 30, 2021.

The first closing removed the South Korean chipmaker’s penalty risk. The purchase agreement obligated SK Hynix to pay Intel a termination fee of $350 million if the deal fell through before the first closing because of specified circumstances related to governmental approvals or SK Hynix’s failure to satisfy the applicable closing conditions.

Under the purchase agreement, Intel was also required to pay SK Hynix a termination fee of $140 million if the deal was terminated before the first closing due to the US firm’s failure to meet the agreed upon conditions.

The $9 billion all-cash deal, announced in October 2020, needed to receive antitrust clearance from eight jurisdictions including the US and China.

SK Hynix won approvals from regulators in the US and other countries earlier last year. But China cleared the acquisition just at the end of December, about three months later than SK Hynix had expected, partly because of the tension between the world’s two largest economies.

“While we expected regulatory approvals to be received in late 2021, the deadline for the first closing was not fixed to that point of time and was changeable by mutual agreement,” an official at SK Hynix said. “If both parties do not want to terminate the deal, termination fees will not occur.”

SK Hynix will acquire the remaining assets – including intellectual property related to the manufacture and design of NAND flash wafers, R&D employees and the Dalian fab workforce – from Intel after making the remaining payment of $2 billion, which is expected in March 2025.

SK Hynix and Intel are required to pay a termination fee of $100 million and $40 million, respectively, to each other if the second closing is not completed by September 25, 2025. (Reporting by Choong-hee Won)