SK Square plans 4.3 tln-won shareholder payout from SK hynix dividends

SK Square, the parent company of SK hynix Inc., has announced plans to return a minimum of 4.3 trillion won (approximately US$3.2 billion) to shareholders from the dividends earned by its investment in SK hynix. This substantial payout is anticipated as the chipmaker is expected to generate over 6.2 trillion won in cash dividend payments, based on the company's forecasted dividend pool of more than 30 trillion won for the fiscal year 2026.

The company intends to distribute at least 4.3 trillion won of this expected income to shareholders, as well as commit to returning a minimum of 60 percent of its ordinary dividend income to shareholders until 2028, along with 100 percent of any special dividend income resulting from investment gains from Japan's Kioxia Corp. SK hynix plays a significant role in Kioxia, a Japanese NAND flash memory manufacturer, through a Korean-U.S.-Japanese consortium overseen by Bain Capital.

The precise details of this shareholder return plan will be finalized following the confirmation of SK Square's financial statements for the 2026 fiscal year. This announcement underscores SK Square's intention to significantly expand its existing shareholder return policy for the period of 2026-2028. Earlier this week, SK hynix reported record-high third-quarter revenue and operating profit, along with plans to distribute over 100 trillion won to shareholders in 2026.