SK hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Icheon — Sung Hyung-joo 2026.07.29
SK hynix (000660.KS) has begun a share buyback worth 40 trillion won ($28.8 billion) in earnest.
The company filed to acquire 650,000 of its own shares on the open market on the 20th, according to the Korea Exchange. At the day’s opening price of 1.613 million won per share, the purchase amounts to about 1.048 trillion won ($755 million).
The SK hynix board decided on the 19th to buy back a total of 40.043 trillion won worth of shares on the open market from that day through November 19 and to cancel all of them. Based on the closing price on the trading day just before the board vote, the planned number of shares to be acquired is 24.07 million. The actual number may change depending on future share price movements.
Given that the roughly three-month buyback period includes about 62 actual trading days, a simple calculation shows SK hynix must buy an average of about 645 billion won ($464 million) worth of shares a day. In share terms, that is an average of about 388,000 shares a day. The 650,000 shares filed on the 20th are about 67% above the average volume required.
The industry expects SK hynix to accelerate purchases early in the buyback while the stock is undervalued, then gradually adjust the pace if the share price rises.
Under its filing, SK hynix has a daily buy-order limit of 2.407 million shares, more than six times the average daily buyback volume. That leaves the company ample room to adjust its purchases day by day.
SK hynix said the purpose of the buyback is to enhance shareholder value through the cancellation of treasury shares. The company plans to complete the purchases within the acquisition period and then cancel all the shares it buys at once.
Once the cancellation is complete, the stake held by SK Square, the largest shareholder, will rise as a natural result. SK Square’s shareholding remains unchanged while the total number of shares outstanding falls. If the planned 24.07 million shares are all canceled, SK Square’s stake could climb from about 20% now to about 20.7%.