Hynix Creditors Agreed with Sales

The creditors of Hynix Semiconductors seem to have reached a final agreement on the sales to U.S. Micron Technology.

When the creditors reached an agreement and the board of committee supports the sales plan on 30th, negotiations for a final contract, which is determined to be completed `by the end of May,` may speed up.

However, since the Hynix side expressed its intention to revive the company independently, `opposing the garbage sale` of the company, the boar of committee on 30th could be a final turn for the sales of Hynix.

At the meeting of the Hynix creditors in the Headquarters of Foreign Exchange Bank in Seoul, 66 creditor financial companies (92 percent of the total debt amount) participated. Major banks that holds 65 percent bonds of the company, and Korea Investment Trust Management & Security Company (KITC), that has 5 percent share, led the moves for sales.

However, Trust and Securities companies that have 15 percent of bonds (1 trillion 259 billion won) objected to the sales plan, raising questions about the item, `to give up 50 percent and to received the rest after 2004.`

A high authority of KITC said, "we decided to agree on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for now and will make a final decision after reviewing the detail items of the contract by the end of May."

Meanwhile, a source from the creditor group was not confident for the approval of the sales, saying "It is not certain that the sales plan will be approved by the board of committee on 30ths, requiring for over 6 trustees out of 10 committee members that include 7 trustees from outside the company."

Do-Young Kim nirvana1@donga.com · Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com