The long-delayed 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) sale of Toshiba Corp.’s memory chip business to a multinational consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital finally has come through after the last stumbling block has been cleared with the green light from Chinese antitrust authorities, giving South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. a push in the flash NAND business.

The deal that had passed regulators in South Korea, the United States, Japan, European Union, Brazil, the Philippines, and Taiwan since the awarding in September last year had been put on hold as Beijing took longer than expected on anti-monopolistic review especially with SK Hynix on board at a time China is going all-out to make chipmaking its core industry.

SK Hynix has put up 395 billion yen ($3.6 billion) that could eventually lead to a minority stake in the world’s second-largest flash memory maker. SK Hynix, the second-largest volatile memory maker after Samsung Electronics commands the fourth share in the global market for non-volatile chips whose demand has been growing at an explosive pace in line with the spread of digitalization and automation applications.

Shares of SK Hynix gained 1.38 percent and ended at 87,900 won ($81.57) in Seoul trading on Friday.

SK Hynix has been eager to be part of the buyout as Toshiba is the pioneer in NAND technology.

It also could gain greater customer base as multinational set makers Apple and Dell are partners in the consortium.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Cho Jeehyun

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