Nasdaq Inc. President Nelson Griggs said the high-profile ADR debut of SK Hynix Inc. is leading other international companies to take a fresh look at U.S. capital markets for either initial public listings or American depositary receipt programs.
Griggs made the comments after returning from a trip to Europe where he held meetings with prospective issuers. He described the foreign firms showing interest in the U.S. as falling into two clear groups: earlier-stage companies that have not listed anywhere yet, and established companies that are already publicly listed locally but are exploring the addition of ADRs in the U.S.
"We're having more of those conversations than ADR-type listings, but both have a lot of momentum behind them," Griggs said in a Bloomberg Television interview shortly after SK Hynix's ADRs began trading.
The market's initial reaction to SK Hynix's ADR offering was strong. The ADRs traded nearly 20% above their offering price in intraday sessions, and the company raised $26.5 billion in what the company and market participants characterized as the largest U.S. listing ever by a foreign company.
Griggs pointed to a broader pattern among large capital raises this year, noting that four of the top 10 fundraising transactions were international companies that opted for U.S. markets because they believed they would receive the best valuation there.
He singled out JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the major Wall Street banks leading the SK Hynix offering, for achieving an effective pricing outcome. Griggs observed that while non-ADR initial public offerings are typically priced against comparable domestic equities, the SK Hynix deal also had to be evaluated with reference to a large U.S. comparable, Micron Technology Inc.
"JPMorgan did a very nice job here getting that price to a point where we are seeing some nice upward price action," Griggs said. "It is very stable at the moment."
Griggs also addressed comments from SK Hynix's chairman, Chey Tae-won, who said he would watch the ADRs' stability before deciding whether the company would return to U.S. capital markets. Griggs described such caution as typical for experienced public companies.
"Companies typically will come back to the market," Griggs said. "They will be evaluating where they get the best valuation for those shares." For a company at SK Hynix's stage of development, he said that any future capital-raising in the U.S. would more likely take the form of additional ADR issuance rather than a conventional IPO structure.
When asked about the prospect of a U.S. listing by SK Hynix's larger competitor Samsung Electronics Co., Griggs declined to comment, noting that Nasdaq does not discuss potential deals until they are publicly announced.
The developments underscore active discussions between Nasdaq and international issuers across different stages of corporate development, with pricing outcomes and comparable domestic equities playing key roles in how those issuers assess U.S. alternatives.