SK to Advance Payment of 649.5 Billion KRW to Small and Medium Partners Before Chuseok

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] SK Group announced on the 2nd that it will advance the payment of 649.5 billion KRW in goods payments to enable small and medium-sized partner companies to smoothly manage cash without financial difficulties ahead of Chuseok.

A total of 10 SK affiliates participated in this early payment of goods payments, including SK Hynix (450 billion KRW), SK Telecom (132 billion KRW), SK Siltron (37.7 billion KRW), SK E&S (10.5 billion KRW), SK㈜ C&C (8 billion KRW), and SK Specialty (7.7 billion KRW). These SK affiliates plan to pay their partners an average of 10 days earlier than the due date. SK will bear the interest costs incurred accordingly.

This early payment is expected to provide considerable help to SK’s partner companies, which have been struggling with fund management due to recent economic downturns and domestic and international adversities such as interest rate hikes.

Prior to this, SK has continued to support win-win cooperation in areas such as fund management, securing technological competitiveness, and talent recruitment for small and medium-sized partner companies.

First, 14 SK affiliates are operating a win-win growth fund worth 448 billion KRW and are supporting partner companies with low-interest loans that reduce interest rates by 1.01~1.83%.

SK Hynix separately operates a 50 billion KRW supply payment fund that provides interest-free loans to improve payment conditions for first- and second-tier partners. Promising small and medium-sized enterprises with high technological potential are selected as ‘Technology Innovation Companies’ and are supported with interest-free loans for technology development funds. The ‘Semiconductor Academy’ has shared semiconductor-related industry knowledge and know-how with partners.

Additionally, SK Telecom previously advanced 348 billion KRW in funds to partner companies facing financial difficulties due to the Lunar New Year holiday earlier this year and the rise in raw material prices and KRW-USD exchange rates in the second half of the year.

Furthermore, SK Telecom supports partner companies by allowing them to use its patented technologies free of charge, and small and medium-sized enterprises that are not partners can join the online developer support center ‘T Developers’ to develop ICT-related technologies.

SK Telecom is holding a ‘non-face-to-face recruitment fair’ for partner companies struggling to secure personnel due to COVID-19 and provides free training for new employees of partner companies. SK Siltron also supports new employee training and specialized education such as wafer manufacturing processes.

An SK official said, "We will continue to carry out corporate activities that can be of practical help for win-win growth and sustainable growth with small and medium-sized partner companies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.