Hynix ended talks amid renewed demand for memories and "better-than-expected profit margins in its non-memory operations," according to the report.

Last year, Citigroup offered 520 billion won (about US$430 million) to buy non-memory operations from Hynix Semiconductor Inc.. This is lower than the $600 million mentioned as the deal value in a reported earlier that week.

Hynix, a major DRAM maker that built up massive debts before negotiating to convert them into equity for its creditors, had been in talks with a venture capital fund run by Citigroup for some time