South Korea's ruling party is pushing an amendment to let chipmaker SK Hynix
form joint ventures with external investors to build wafer fabs. Current law
bars such JVs when proposed by a subsidiary's subsidiary; under the draft
amendment SK Hynix would be able to attract outside capital provided it retains
at least 50% of the JV. SK Hynix is a subsidiary of SK Square, which is a
subsidiary of SK Group. Sponsors say the change is intended to speed wafer-fab
construction given the scale of required investment; the draft also requires new
JV headquarters or main offices to be located outside the Seoul metropolitan
area to support regional development policy.