Elpida Memory Inc, Japan’s biggest maker of computer-memory chips, will sell ¥30 billion (US$314 million) in shares to the state-run Development Bank of Japan.
Tokyo-based Elpida will issue the preferred stock, convertible into 23.7 million common shares from 2011, on Aug. 31, the company said in a filing to the finance ministry yesterday.
The sale is a part of Elpida’s plan to raise ¥160 billion from the government, banks and a Taiwanese partner, after falling chip prices led to a record loss last year.
The company said in June it would use the funds to develop smaller chips to cut costs and better compete with the industry’s leader Samsung Electronics Co.
Converting all the preferred shares into new common stock may make the state-run bank Elpida’s biggest shareholder with a 14.3 percent stake. Japan Trustee Services is currently the chipmaker’s biggest investor with a 13.7 percent holding, company shareholding data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The shares gained 12 percent to close at ¥1,340 in Tokyo trading yesterday, the highest since Oct. 14. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.2 percent.
Elpida earlier this month reported its smallest loss in three quarters as production cuts helped prices rebound from record lows.
The net loss was ¥44.5 billion in the three months to June 30, compared with ¥13.8 billion a year earlier.
The company reached a technology partnership deal with Taiwanese government-backed Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司) in April to help TMC restructure Taiwan’s dynamic random access memory (DRAM) companies.
In return, TMC is likely to hold a 9.5 percent share in Elpida, Industrial Development Bureau Director-General Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said on July 22.
Earlier this week, Elpida agreed to buy assets and technology for manufacturing graphics DRAM memory from Germany’s Qimonda AG, a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange said on Thursday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San