[Weekly HOT Stocks] SK Hynix Acquires Intel NAND... Individuals Are 'Buying'

The difficulty of turning a profit in the short term is a burden... Stock price falls 3.23% over 4 trading days

Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Geum Bo-ryeong] SK Hynix attracted market attention throughout the week after deciding to acquire Intel's NAND business division.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 25th, individual investors purchased SK Hynix shares worth 171.2 billion KRW between the 20th and 23rd, following the announcement of SK Hynix's acquisition of Intel's NAND business division. During this period, SK Hynix ranked first among the top stocks in net purchases by individual investors.

SK Hynix agreed to acquire Intel's entire NAND business division, excluding Optane (3D XPoint), for 10.3 trillion KRW. The payment plan includes an initial 8 trillion KRW by the end of next year and a second payment of 2.3 trillion KRW in March 2025.

Researcher Lee Subin from Daishin Securities analyzed, "Intel's market share in the NAND industry is about 7-9%, and SK Hynix's is around 10-12%, which combined amounts to just over 20%. This will place SK Hynix third in the market, following Samsung Electronics at 34% and Kioxia + Western Digital at 33%."

The securities industry expressed optimism about this acquisition. Researcher Kim Dongwon from KB Securities stated, "A leap to become the global No.1 in enterprise SSD (eSSD) is expected. Intel's NAND division, which successfully turned profitable in the first half of this year, holds the global No.2 position in the eSSD segment with solid profitability. Considering SK Hynix's current eSSD market share (4-5%), it is estimated that SK Hynix can rise to the global No.1 in eSSD. In particular, SK Hynix is expected to strengthen its competitiveness in server memory and expand NAND technology competitiveness by utilizing Intel's NAND intellectual property (IP) and software."

Researcher Hwang Minseong from Samsung Securities added, "More importantly, there is potential synergy between the two companies. Although Optane was excluded from this contract, future production cooperation on Optane and expanded collaboration between central processing units (CPU) and memory are anticipated."

However, from a short-term perspective, the difficulty in turning profitable weighed on the stock price, which showed a downward trend. The closing price, which was 86,700 KRW on the 19th, fell to 83,900 KRW on the 23rd, marking a 3.23% decline over four trading days.