14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest news on the Web, Hynix Semiconductor Inc is starting to cut its workforce and trim executive salaries as a means of reducing costs amid economic downturn. As the latest reports unveil, the South Korean memory supplier Hynix is set to lower the number of its executives by 30 percent, while also reducing the CEO's pay by 30 percent and that of other executives by 10-to-20 percent.
The company is also reported to have plans of raising capital from creditors and not looking for a government bail-out. It seems that the memory supplier will try to raise up to $690.6 million, says the news report. The Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) is the single largest shareholder of Hynix, and has been reported to work on selling its 36 percent stake which it owns with eight other companies in the chip maker. That stake is said to be worth $2.7 billion.
As the report states, KEB accounts for about 8.2 percent of Hynix. Korea Development Bank, Woori Bank, Shinhan Bank and Kookmin Bank also own shares of the memory supplier. According to the same piece of news, Hynix is also on its way to shut down some fabs to cut more costs. The company has already announced that it plans to accelerate the shutting down process for its 200-mm fabs, and to reduce its manufacturing capacity by 30 percent.
On the other hand, Hynix has recently made public its intentions of opening a new 300-mm NAND fab in Korea. The company also stated that another means of registering cash would be the selling of its stake in the Chinese joint fab venture to Numonyx B.V. for $100 million.
The company is working on generating cash amid losses. Hynix announced $1.82 billion revenue for the quarter, up 16 percent from the previous quarter, yet it still suffered from the memory downturn, and the posted $697.5 million net loss for the quarter is solid proof of that.
The downturn is also affecting other memory makers like Elpida, Micron, Powerchip, ProMos, Qimonda, Spansion, and more.