Hynix posts first-half loss of $345 million


Prices for chips eased from a peak in the first quarter because of seasonal factors

Staff and wires

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's No. 2 chipmaker Hynix Semiconductor reported a worse than expected first-half loss of 4.14 billion won ($345 million) Wednesday.

But it said it had no liquidity problems and had about 460 billion won ($383.5 million) in cash-equivalent assets at the end of June.

Hynix said first-half sales were 1.6 trillion won ($1.33 billion), down from 2.9 trillion won ($2.42 billion) a year ago.

Analysts expected Hynix to report a loss of about 200 billion won ($166.7 million) in the first half, as chip prices have eased from a peak in the first quarter because of seasonal factors.

Second quarter loss narrows

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Hynix said it had a net loss of 418 billion won ($351 million) in the second quarter that ended June 30, down from a loss of 1.6 trillion won ($1.33 billion) a year ago.

Hynix is the world's No. 3 maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.

It was on the verge of selling most of its operations to rival Micron Technology of the United States earlier this year, but that $3.4 billion deal was scotched by its board.

The company was subsequently taken over by creditors in June.(Full Story)

Shares in Hynix are down 3.74 percent to 515 won in afternoon trading.

Reuters contributed to this report.