...- SK Hynix Inc.'s credit profile will weaken meaningfully in 2023 as excess inventories at customers and suppliers depress memory prices amid weakening demand. We expect supply-demand dynamics will begin to balance in the second half of 2023, enabling improvements in credit measures in 2024. - We project the company's free operating cash flow (FOCF) will remain negative in 2023. This is despite the substantial capital expenditure (capex) cuts planned in 2023, which will be insufficient to offset the decline in cash flow from operations. - On Feb. 3, 2023, we revised the outlook to negative from stable. We affirmed the corporate credit rating on SK Hynix at '###-'. SK Hynix's debt to EBITDA will likely exceed 3.0x in 2023 before recovering to 1.5x-2.0x in 2024. - The negative outlook reflects the possibility that the downturn in the memory semiconductor market could persist longer than we expect, resulting in much weaker credit measures over the next 12 months....
