Samsung Reportedly Mulls Listing Shares In The US After SK Hynix’s Blockbuster Nasdaq Debut

• A U.S. listing would make Samsung more accessible to global investors, potentially boosting liquidity and drawing more institutional capital into the stock.
• Samsung management will monitor the volatile memory chip stocks as part of the decision-making, according to the report.
• Samsung’s rival SK Hynix listed its shares on Nasdaq last week, after raising $26.5 billion.

After the blockbuster U.S. listing of SK Hynix, its South Korean rival Samsung Electronics is planning to follow suit, according to a report in Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Samsung is in the early stages of exploring a potential offering of American depositary receipts (ADRs), the agency reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Samsung, one of the biggest chips and consumer electronics makers in the world, has held preliminary discussions with banks, but hasn’t yet made a decision about whether to proceed.

Samsung management will monitor the volatile memory chip stocks as part of the decision-making, according to the report, which added that should the company proceed, its sprawling business portfolio and recurring labor disputes could pose challenges.

Samsung Mulls US Listing

To be sure, Samsung has considered an ADR offering in the past but did not move forward with the plans. Samsung went public on the Korean exchange in 1975, and its shares are also listed on the London stockStock Exchange. 

In Korea, Samsung stock has gained about 120% this year, with the company’s market capitalization recently surpassing $1 trillion. That compares with a 194% surge for SK Hynix.

A U.S. listing would make Samsung more accessible to global investors, potentially boosting liquidity and drawing more institutional capital into the stock.

For memory traders, it would create a direct U.S.-traded benchmark alongside SK Hynix and Micron, making it easier to compare valuations and trade the sector.

SK Hynix’s Blockbuster Listing

The South Korean memory giant raised $26.5 billion by issuing 177.9 million American depositary receipts (ADRs) priced at $149 each last week. 

The share sale topped the $25 billion raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014 and was the second biggest U.S. stock sale on record after SpaceX’s $75 billion offering last month. 

The company’s Seoul-listed stock has already more than tripled this year, boosted by insatiable global demand for its chips and hardware used in data centers.

SK Hynix shares were up nearly 7% in the premarket trading on Tuesday, tracking a rebound in the broader market. 

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