The Nan Ya group of companies raised US$432 million selling shares and bonds convertible into shares, the latest to tap investor optimism an improving US economy will bolster demand for shares in the nation's exporters.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the country's No. 1 maker of plastics chemicals, raised US$200 million selling bonds that can be swapped for shares in its unit Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation's biggest computer memory-chip maker. The chipmaker itself sold US$232 million of shares overseas.
"There's a lot of talk about a firm recovery in the US in six months time which will be great for Asia," said David Chapman, who helps manage the equivalent of US$650 million in global equities as associate director at Towry Law Asia Ltd.
"Investors want to position themselves to participate in that trend by buying equity," he said.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's biggest notebook computer maker, and Chi Mei Corp (奇美), the nation's second-biggest maker of flat-panel displays, were among companies that raised money as the country recorded its busiest week for convertible bond sales to overseas investors last month. Optimism over a US recovery has helped spur a 30 percent rise in the NASDAQ Composite Index, seen as a global bellwether for technology stocks, while the TAIEX is up 18 percent this year.
The US economy may quicken to a 3.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter, from 1.4 percent in the first three months of the year, according to economists.
US retail sales growth may have accelerated last month as consumers, more confident about the economy, took advantage of discounts and incentives, economists said in advance of a US government report this week.
Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of US GDP. An acceleration in growth would help bolster manufacturing and create jobs, which in turn puts more money in their hands to buy Taiwan-made goods.
Nan Ya Plastics owns half of Nanya Technology. The bonds can be converted into Nanya Technology shares at NT$32.551 apiece. The bonds won't pay interest and mature in five years. The company may sell a further US$40 million of the bonds, depending on demand.
That's a 20.6 percent premium to Nanya Technology's close Friday of NT$27 a share.
Nan Ya Plastics said last month it may use the proceeds to buy raw materials. Nanya Technology, the world's fifth-largest maker of computer-memory chips, said it will use the proceeds to finance a chip plant it's building with Germany's Infineon Technologies AG.
Nanya Technology and its domestic rivals are reviving fund-raising plans on expectations the memory-chip market will rebound from a more than two-year slump. The spot price for Nanya's main product, the 256-megabit double data rate memory chip, has risen to US$4 from a 12-month low of US$2.86 on Feb. 26.
Nan Ya Plastics is up 30 percent this year while Nanya Technology is up 34 percent.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is