Solar Applied Materials Technology Corp (光洋科) yesterday secured a NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) three-year syndicated loan from a 12-member bank consortium led by Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行).
The loan will be used mainly to fund Solar Applied Material’s operations and expansion, although part of it will be reserved to repay former loans, Chang Hwa said in a press statement.
Chang Hwa said the banks were bullish about the company’s prospects and had oversubscribed the loan request by 190 percent to NT$5.7 billion, although the company insisted on taking up only NT$3 billion.
The outlook for Solar Applied Materials is positive in view of the recovery in the global semiconductor industry, a pick-up in demand for flat panels and rising prices of precious metals, Chang Hwa said.
Solar Applied Materials, founded in 1978, is the largest optical data storage thin-film manufacturer worldwide.
As the world’s sixth-largest player in precious metals and rare materials refining, special forming and processing, Solar Applied Materials offers key materials and an integrated service model to customers for application in the optoelectronics, petrochemicals and consumer electronics industries.
Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土銀) and Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) are among the syndicate of 12 banks.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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