South Korea's SK Group says to invest 25 billion pounds in semiconductor production

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Group is considering investing 46 trillion won ($24.85 billion pounds) in semiconductor production facilities, the country's third-largest conglomerate said on Monday, without giving further details.

Analysts say it takes roughly 14-15 trillion won to build one semiconductor plant, including equipment and production systems.

The investment includes new equipment for a production line being built for unit SK Hynix Inc , besides two new semiconductor plants, the group said in a statement.

It did not, however, give details of where the two new plants would be built and when they would start production.

A spokesman for SK Hynix said 2.38 trillion won out of the total amount under consideration has already been invested for a plant, called M14, that is under construction in Icheon, about 50 kilometres (31.07 miles) from capital Seoul.

He said the plant is expected to be operational "very soon" and would produce about 5,000 dynamic random-access memory chip wafers by year-end.

The announcement comes after President Park Geun-hye last week pardoned SK Group's chairman, Chey Tae-won, jailed since January 2013 in one of the longest jail terms ever given to the head of a South Korean conglomerate.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Biju Dwarakanath)