UPDATE 1-No bidders for Hynix: other methods to be mulled

* No letters of intent submitted by deadline -KEB

* Shares fall 3.6 pct to 1-mth low before announcement

(Adds details from KEB statement, share price)

SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The main shareholders of Hynix Semiconductor Inc (000660.KS) will look at other methods to sell their stake in the chipmaker, including offering it in parts, after the company failed to draw a bidder by a Friday deadline.

Creditors-turned-shareholders led by Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) (004940.KS) are putting up for sale an up to 28 percent stake in the world's No. 2 memory chipmaker, worth around 3.9 trillion won ($3.4 billion) at market prices.

KEB said no letters of intent to buy the stake had been put in by the 3 p.m. (0600 GMT) deadline.

"We will convene advisory and shareholder council meetings as soon as possible, and study all methods to help (Hynix) have a stable management and ownership structure, including selling the stake in parts," the bank said in a statement.

Their first attempt at offloading the shares in an auction fell through last November after the sole bidder pulled out.

The two auctions targetted domestic companies

Shares in Hynix fell 3.6 percent to close at 22,750 won prior to the announcement, after briefly hitting a one-month low of 22,200 won.

Hynix is at the top of the government's 2010 sale list, which includes stakes in Daewoo International Corp (047050.KS) and Woori Finance Holdings (053000.KS), as it tries to narrow a fiscal deficit.

Hynix swung to an operating profit in the last quarter of 2009, powered by higher chip prices and rising demand in an ongoing sector recovery. It has forecast further recovery in the memory chip sector. [ID:nTOE60J0AS]

But the highly cyclical nature of the memory chip industry and heavy industry requirements have limited investor appetite for Hynix, which competes with Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and Japan's Elpida Memory (6665.T).

On Friday, Samsung expected rapidly recovering demand for its premium computer memory chips, a day after Elpida posted its biggest net profit in three years with a surge in DRAM prices. [ID:nTOE60R07I] ($1=1155.4 Won)

(Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)