SEOUL, May 8 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Hynix (000660.KS) , opens new tab has agreed to sell its nearly 50% stake in its foundry unit based in China to a Chinese state-owned enterprise, according to regulatory filings and media reports.

SK hynix Inc., headquartered in Korea, is the world's top tier semiconductor supplier offering Dynamic Random Access Memory chips (“DRAM”), Flash memory chips (“NAND Flash”) and CMOS Image Sensors (“CIS”) for a wide range of distinguished customers globally.

Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's sixth largest semiconductor company.

It changed its name from Sunkyong Group (Korean: 선경그룹, Hanja: 鮮京그룹) to SK Group in 1998. The group is controlled by estate of Chey Tae-won through a holding company, SK Inc. The cornerstone of SK Group is its energy and chemicals division.