SK Hynix: Fiscal 4Q17 Financial Results

(in billion KRW)	4Q16	4Q17	FY16	FY17
Revenue	5,358	9,028	17,198	30,109
*Growth*		69%		*75%*
Net income (loss)	1,629	3,220	2,961	10,642

SK Hynix Inc. announced financial results for its fiscal year 2017 and fourth quarter ended December 31, 2017.

It reported record-high annual and quarterly revenue, operating profit, and net income.

It consolidated sales of fiscal year 2017 totaled 30.1 trillion won, while operating profit amounted to 13.72 trillion won, and net income was 10.64 trillion won. Operating margin for the year was 46% and net margin was 35%.

The consolidated fourth quarter revenue was 9.03 trillion won, while operating profit amounted to 4.47 trillion won with operating margin of 49%. Net income for the quarter was 3.22 trillion won.

Revenue trend

Last year, overall memory demand, particularly for server products, rapidly increased due to the worldwide growth of Internet data centers, while technology migration challenges and higher CAPEX burdens for manufacturers have limited the growth of overall memory supply. Favorable market conditions continued during the fourth quarter, thanks to strong demand for server products and price hikes for mobile products.

Quarter-over-quarter, DRAM bit shipments grew by 3% and the average selling price by 9%. For NAND flash, the bit shipments rose by 16% thanks to the growing demand for mobile products, and the average selling price increased by 4% due to the price increase of mobile products, such as MCP.

SK Hynix will meet growing market demand by expanding new process technology mostly in server and SSD products. The company will expand 1Xnm DRAM, which it has started mass producing for PCs in the fourth quarter of last year, to mobile and server products. In addition, SK Hynix will deliver new products, such as HBM2 and GDDR6, to broaden its portfolio. It will also pave the way for its full-fledged entrance to the enterprise SSD market by increasing the proportion of 72-layer 3D NAND, and expand the sales of new NAND solutions, including UFS, to respond to the mobile market.

SK Hynix have decided to pay its shareholders 1,000 won per share in 2017 in the form of a cash dividend, which is increased by 67% compared to the last year