Semiconductor testing equipment supplier Scientech Corp (辛耘) saw its shares soar as much as 76 percent on its trading debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, after transferring their listing from the Emerging Stock Market board.
Shares in the company, which raised NT$252.58 million (US$8.5 million) in its initial public offering (IPO) on the main board, touched NT$63.5 at one point, well above its IPO price of NT$36, before easing slightly to close at NT$63.1.
The benchmark TAIEX closed 0.55 percent lower yesterday.
Shares of Scientech — which also has wafer reclaim equipment, chemical and biotechnology equipment businesses — have risen 60.44 percent so far this year, outperforming the TAIEX, which has increased 3.83 percent over the same period, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s data.
The company’s share performance has ridden the wave of a recovery in the global semiconductor industry, which also boosted the shares of local electron beam wafer inspection equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (漢微科) 2.04 percent to close at NT$750 yesterday, replacing handset lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) as the highest priced stock on the local bourse.
Scientech counts the world’s leading semiconductor companies as its clients, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) accounting for 70 percent of its sales last year, the company said at a pre-IPO conference last month.
Global semiconductor equipment spending is expected to decrease by about 5 percent to US$56.9 billion this year, from last year’s US$59.79 billion, but the figure is forecast to increase by 13 percent next year to US$64.4 billion on the back of rising demand for tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices, Gartner Inc said in its latest forecast.
Taiwan and China will be the two major areas witnessing growth in semiconductor equipment spending this year, with Taiwan likely to see spending increase 1.55 percent to US$12.95 billion and a 6.79 percent rise to US$4.45 billion in China, according to Gartner’s estimate.
Scientech said its sales would trend upward in the months ahead, supported by the sales of its own semiconductor and wafer reclaim equipment as well as distribution sales for global brands, the local cable TV network UBN quoted Scientech chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明棋) as saying.
In the first two months of this year, the company reported NT$446 million in revenue, up 55.6 percent from a year earlier.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service (永豐投顧) said in a note yesterday that it forecast the company’s revenue would increase 7 percent to NT$2.3 billion this year from NT$2.2 billion last year, with earnings per share of NT$2.44, up from NT$2.07 last year.
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