UMC announces ProMOS investment

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest made-to-order chipmaker, yesterday said it had acquired a 1.32 percent stake in local memory chipmaker ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) for NT$806 million (US$24.58 million).

In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, UMC said it had bought 66.99 million shares of the nation's third-largest maker of computer memory chips at NT$12.04 per share over the last five days.

Makers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips such as ProMOS, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽) have recently outperformed the market as demand for DDRII (double data rate 2) chips continues to rise.

UMC's investment in ProMOS came after the company spent NT$583.05 million in late May to acquire a 1.13 percent holding in Tatung Co (大同), one of the nation's biggest television vendors.

The purchase of Tatung shares had triggered market speculation on whether UMC was eying Tatung's valuable assets, which include more than NT$100 billion worth of land assets and NT$30 billion worth of stock investments in several listed companies like Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation's third-largest maker of liquid-crystal-display panels.

UMC shares rose 0.84 percent to NT$17.95 before the company's disclosure of the investment plan yesterday.