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Asustek buys stake in chip design firm

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world's biggest motherboard maker, has bought a major stake in a local chipmaker for NT$125 million (US$3.8 million) via a private placement, a company statement said yesterday.

Asustek now has approximately a 4 percent stake, or 2.5 million shares, of Ene Technology Inc (迅杰科技), making it the biggest single shareholder in the computer keyboards chip designer.

Asustek also makes own-brand notebook computers and a supplier of low-priced Classmate laptop computers to developing countries.

The share purchase, which was first reported by local media late last month, was almost half of the 5.2 million common shares Ene Technology was planning to offer at NT$50 per share.

Ene Technology shares jumped to almost the 7 percent daily-limit and ended at NT$216.50 yesterday on the GRETAI Securities Market.

Local chip tester Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) and chip designer Richtek Technology Corp (立錡) yesterday said they had bought the remaining 2.7 million shares of Ene Technology at NT$50 per share, paving the way for future strategic alliances.

On Monday, CLSA Ltd upgraded Asustek to "buy" from "underperform" as a result of improving growth momentum driven mainly by the sale of new low-cost laptop computers scheduled for next month.
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