Key Takeaways
- SK hynix shares rose 3% today after Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo reported the company plans a special dividend of about ₩16 trillion ($12 billion), paid for with gains from selling its Kioxia stake.
- SK hynix can afford the payout without cutting into its HBM spending, because the money would come from a one-time gain.
- Its operating cash flow covered capital spending nearly twice over in 2025, and free cash flow reached ₩91.7 trillion in the 12 months to June.
- SK hynix says nothing has been decided and plans to announce new shareholder returns with its third-quarter results on Oct. 28.
SK hynix (SKHY) is up 3% today on a report that it plans to hand shareholders a special dividend of about ₩16 trillion (about $12 billion), paid for with gains from selling its stake in rival Kioxia.
It would come right after a ₩40 trillion (roughly $30 billion) buyback wrapped up on Oct. 21.
What exactly happened
Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo reported Monday, citing investment banking sources, that SK hynix plans to pay out about 80% of the roughly ₩20 trillion it gained selling down Kioxia in the first half. The payout would be announced with third-quarter results on Oct. 28.
SK hynix’s stake goes back to 2018, when it joined a Bain-led group that bought Toshiba’s memory business for $18 billion.
Before Monday’s U.S. open, SK hynix said in a filing that it’s weighing several ways to return cash but hasn’t decided anything. It will announce them on Oct. 28, subject to board approval.
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The HBM budget is safe
A ₩16 trillion payout wouldn’t have to come out of SK hynix’s HBM spending. Its operating cash flow covered capital spending nearly twice over in 2025…
And over the 12 months to June, free cash flow hit ₩91.7 trillion. The special and the buyback together come to about ₩56 trillion, well short of that. Plus, the dividend would be paid from a one-time gain. That leaves alone the operating cash that funds this year’s capex, which is guided to the high-₩40 trillion range.
Cash also overtook debt in 2025…
By June 30, cash had reached ₩88.0 trillion, ₩69.4 trillion more than its debt. And that was before the buyback started on Aug. 20.
Still, all that cash depends on memory prices. And the bills keep growing: preliminary plans for the Yongin fab cluster alone run about ₩600 trillion. SK hynix also still has to fund Solidigm’s expansion after dropping its IPO on Friday.
Oct. 28 settles it
FnGuide’s consensus already had Korean analysts expecting more than ₩30 trillion of new returns, so a ₩16 trillion special could be only part of the package.
My take: SK hynix can easily afford this. A one-time special is a smart way to hand back a windfall without promising a bigger regular dividend it would have to defend in a downturn.
Of course, nothing is final until the board signs off. And the 2027 HBM prices and spending plans due that day matter more for the stock than any one payout.
So what is SK hynix stock actually worth?
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Disclaimer:
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