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ProMOS plans to finance equipment with shares

ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), the nation's second-biggest maker of computer-memory chips, plans to raise US$300 million selling shares overseas in the first quarter to finance equipment purchases as semiconductor demand improves.

Shareholders today approved a proposal to sell 600 million shares overseas, worth US$248 million at yesterday's closing price.

Hsinchu-based ProMOS aims to raise US$300 million, president Chen Min-liang (陳民良) said after the meeting, implying the company expects to sell the shares at a 21 percent premium.

ProMOS last month said it expects to post a pretax profit this year after earlier forecasting a loss, because of increasing sales and lower costs.

The price of the benchmark memory chip has risen almost half from its February low as demand rebounds for personal computers, according to Dramexchange.com, a Taiwan-based online market-maker.

Shares of ProMOS fell NT$0.10, or 0.7 percent, to NT$14.05 in Taipei. They have climbed 46 percent this year, outpacing a 24 percent gain on the TAIEX.

ProMOS will use the money raised from the overseas share sale to buy equipment for its first 12-inch silicon wafer plant.

The company plans further share sales next year, vice president Albert Lin (林育中) said.

The overseas-traded shares of Taiwanes companies often trade at higher levels than in the domestic market because international investment in the country is restricted.

Still, ProMOS's UK- listed global depositary receipts last traded at the equivalent of NT$13.66, a discount to the company's domestic shares.

ProMOS said on Oct. 29 it expects to report full-year pretax profit of NT$361 million. It also raised its sales expectation for this year to NT$23.4 billion from N$22.3 billion.

The company, which in May forecast a full-year loss of NT$1.2 billion, said on Nov. 5 it expects a fourth-quarter pretax profit of NT$973 million.

ProMOS had profit of NT$864 million in the third quarter, ending two quarters of losses totaling NT$1.5 billion.
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