South Korea’s SK Hynix, the second-largest maker of memory chips in the world, submitted a non-binding bid to acquire a 20 per cent stake in Toshiba’s memory chip business for an estimated KRW2 trillion to KRW3 trillion ($1.75 billion to $2.63 billion).

SK Hynix said in a regulatory filing it submitted the initial bid last week and it is undecided if it will submit a final bid, Yonhap reported.

The chipmaker is keen to expand its NAND flash memory business as global demand for flash memory chips soars. It announced last month it will build a NAND flash memory plant in Cheongju, South Korea for KRW2.2 trillion. The facility is expected to start production in June 2019.

Struggling Toshiba, the second-largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, said in January it plans to sell about a 20 per cent stake in its memory business as it deals with more than a billion-dollar write-down from its nuclear power business in the US, the news agency said.

The holding company of SK Group, the parent company of SK Hynix, agreed last month to buy a 51 per cent stake in silicon wafer producer LG Siltron for KRW620 billion ($532 million) from LG Group.