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Prime View to sell up to 70m shares to pay loans

The board of local flat-panel maker Prime View International Co (元太科技) yesterday approved a plan to sell a maximum of 70 million common shares via private placement at home or overseas to pay back syndicated loans.

To fund the acquisition of bankrupt South Korean panel maker BOE-Hydis Technology Co, Prime View had earlier signed a NT$6 billion (US$197.3 million) loan agreement with a group of local banks led by Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀).

“The share sale is aimed at paying back the bank loans as payback is required in the short term,” company spokesman Stephen Chen (陳新宇) said by telephone.

Prime View could sell 70 million common shares to raise about NT$3.3 billion locally via private placement or abroad in the form of depositary receipts, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The share offering will be discussed and brought to vote in the annual shareholders’ meeting on June 13.

“We have not yet set a timetable [for the share sale] and have not settled on the price. We will act in accordance with changes in the market,” Chen said.

Prime View makes liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels used mostly in consumer electronics, including cellphones and portable disc players, and diversified into high-margin flexible displays in recent years.

The company plans to acquire a 95 percent stake in BOE-Hydis through a NT$9.3 billion buyout offer initiated last November by a consortium led by the Taiwanese firm.

Prime View expects to take over BOE-Hydis next month after completing the deal and to turn it around by the end of the year in light of increasing orders. BOE-Hydis largely makes LCD panels for notebook computers.

Prime View shares were unchanged at NT$46.8 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which advanced 1.47 percent.
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