Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest computer memory chipmaker, said yesterday its board has approved a plan to sell 600 million shares to finance capacity expansion and repay debts.
The chipmaker aims to raise between NT$10 billion (US$310.4 million) and NT$20 billion from the share sale and hopes to complete the deal at the end of the next quarter. Part of the proceeds would be used to buy new equipment enabling migration to next-generation technologies, the company said.
COMPETITION
Nanya Technology this month started using 42 nanometer technology, three months ahead of schedule, helping it better compete with rivals, company spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) told reporters on the sidelines of the shareholders’ meeting.
South Korean memory chip giant Samsung Electronics Co said it has ramped up production on 40 nanometer technology in the first quarter of this year.
The new-generation technology would help Nanya Technology reduce manufacturing costs by 30 percent compared with 50 nanometer technology, Pai said.
The company is scheduled to ramp up production in the final quarter of this year using the 42 nanometer technology, he said.
Technology migration is expected to enable Nanya Technology to quicken its pace of output growth by between 20 percent and 30 percent quarter-on-quarter in the July-to-September period, the company said.
OUTPUT INCREASE
In the first quarter, Nanya Technology’s output increased 10 percent quarter-on-quarter. For the full year, output would grow by 45 percent from last year, it said.
Pai also gave a positive outlook for the second half of the year.
Demand before November looks robust after the recent emergence of PC replacement demand from corporations, while the traditional shopping sprees in September and during the Christmas holidays are also expected to support chip demand, Pai said.
However, chip prices are expected to fall in a narrow range in the near term as an uptrend in contract chip prices began to fade over the past few months, Pai said.
Separately, Nanya Technology plans to speed up diversification efforts to reduce price erosion. It hopes new mobile memory chips will make up 10 percent of its revenues next year, from between 1 percent and 3 percent this year.
Currently, computer memory chips make up 70 percent of Nanya Technology’s revenues.
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