By Yena Park and Jihoon Lee
SEOUL, July 8 (Reuters) – Dollar-selling related to a U.S. share sale by South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix emerged in the country’s dollar-won forwards market on Wednesday, sending the won to a more than one-month high, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
“There is forward selling related to SK Hynix American depository receipts (ADR) today,” the source said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Earlier this week, SK Hynix launched a U.S. share sale to raise 43 trillion won ($28.66 billion), drawing indications of interest worth as much as $7 billion from major investors as it rides the AI boom in one of the world’s largest equity offerings.
SK Hynix is expected to bring U.S. dollars into the country by around July 15, converting a part of the funds it raises in its offering of ADRs into the won, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The won strengthened 1% against the dollar past the 1,500 mark and hit its highest level since May 29 at 1,498.1 per dollar.
“It is fresh USD equity (with) proceeds to fund won-denominated capex…that is a giant USD receivable with a KRW use of funds,” said Brent Donnelly, president of market analytics firm Spectra Markets.
“FX traders will argue about timing, hedging, swaps, settlement, etc., but the first-order sign is: this is a dollar-selling, won-buying event,” Donnelly said, adding that even a fraction of $29 billion would represent a material flow in the dollar-won market.
South Korean Deputy Finance Minister Moon Ji-sung told Reuters on Wednesday that Supply-demand dynamics of the dollar-won market were expected to shift in the second half, pointing to won demand from the imminent U.S. share sale by SK Hynix.
($1 = 1,500.5000 won)
(Reporting by Yena Park and Jihoon Lee, Additional Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue and Shri Navaratnam)
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