The government said yesterday it was in talks with creditors of ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) to help the beleaguered chipmaker by the end of this month stay solvent.
The announcement may be a last-ditch effort to rescue the nation’s debt-ridden manufacturers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips after the government rejected two industry consolidation proposals from DRAM makers over the past three weeks, citing unfavorable terms.
“As ProMOS is facing pressing problems paying debts, government representatives met yesterday [Wednesday] with the company’s major credit banks to resolve its financial difficulties,” Chen Chao-yi (陳昭義), director-general of the Industrial Development Bureau, said by telephone.
But the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that following Wednesday’s meeting, the government may not inject funds into ProMOS and credit banks were not likely to offer more loans to the firm.
ProMOS is facing mounting pressure to repay US$330 million in overseas corporate debt that will mature on Feb. 14.
On Monday, the Ministry of Economic Affairs dashed the company’s hopes of getting governmental bailout funds for a consolidation plan filed with Tokyo-based Elpida Memory Inc.
The ministry said the plan did not meet its requirements.
“We had originally hoped to solve this problem by endorsing their consolidation and bailout proposals. But now we are worried [this is unlikely],” Chen said.
He declined to comment on the newspaper’s report that the ministry had consulted ProMOS’ creditors about offering short-term loans for the chipmaker to repay its bond holders in exchange for ProMOS corporate bonds and converting debts into ProMOS shares.
Government agencies will hold more meetings with the companies’ credit banks and hopefully reach a solution by the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
From 2003 to 2007, ProMOS obtained NT$63.7 billion in syndicated loans from local banks — mostly state-controlled financial institutions including Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) — to finance its capacity expansion.
These two banks yesterday downplayed their role in the government’s rescue efforts, including the government’s idea of making the banks shareholders in ProMOS.
“We have not heard this information yet,” Taiwan Cooperative Bank president Lin Tien (林田) told the Taipei Times. “Bank of Taiwan is the main credit bank, not Taiwan Cooperative Bank.”
An official at the bank’s public relations department who preferred to remain anonymous said yesterday the Bank of Taiwan would not comment on the meeting with governmental officials or on the plans to help ProMOS.
The plan to convert debt into shares of ProMOS would require approval from the banks’ shareholders. For government-owned or controlled banks, that would mean the Ministry of Finance.
The ministry did not comment on the option yesterday.
ProMOS and the nation’s top DRAM maker, Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), each submitted bailout proposals recently to the government. Although both were rejected, the companies said they would tweak and resubmit their plans.
“That is for certain,” ProMOS spokesman Ben Tseng (曾邦助) said on the phone. “We haven’t given up yet.”
As part of its efforts to raise capital, ProMOS has sold NT$580 million in manufacturing equipment to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, ProMOS said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
Shares of ProMOS fell 6.93 percent yesterday to NT$1.88 on renewed concern about the firm’s solvency.
Shares of Powerchip and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) fell 6.52 percent and 6.97 percent to NT$3.3 and NT$5.47 respectively.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last