Local chip testing and packaging service provider Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) yesterday said it would launch a tender offer to fully acquire smaller rival Test-Serv Inc (誠遠科技) in a sign of continued consolidation in the nation’s semiconductor industry.
The NT$1.4 billion (US$42.42 million) deal also marks the latest merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the chip testing and packaging sector.
Sigurd plans to buy all 80.2 million shares of Test-Serv at NT$17.5 per share, representing a 19.86 percent premium compared with the stock’s closing price of NT$14.6 yesterday.
“Sigurd believes this strategic alliance will help boost our market share, allowing the company to become the nation’s No. 1 or No. 2 player in the power management IC testing market,” Sigurd chairman Sidney Huang (黃興陽) told a media briefing.
“We also expect the combination of firms to create strong synergies in products, talent and technologies,” Huang added.
The integration would also boost the company’s competitiveness in vying for new orders in a wide range of areas, including auto-drive cars, drones, wearable devices, wireless chargers and the Internet of Things, he said.
Sigurd, which counts the nation’s biggest handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) as one of its major clients, is headquartered in Hsinchu County’s Jhudong Township (竹東). The company mainly provides testing services for customers producing mobile phones, cars, consumer electronics and networking equipment, as well as power management IC testing services.
Sigurd plans to buy Test-Serv shares from today until Jan. 25. The acquisition would become successful after Sigurd buys more than 40 percent of Test-Serv shares.
After the transaction, Test-Serv is to be delisted from the local stock market, Sigurd said.
Sigurd plans to use its own capital to fund the merger and it does not expect the purchase to adversely affect the company’s financial status as it has NT$4 billion in cash and cash equivalents, as well as more than NT$1 billion of unused bank loans.
The company would continue to seek more M&A opportunities to accelerate the firm’s growth, Huang said.
“It is our strategy to grow organically and via M&As,” Huang said.
Sigurd is targeting companies with the potential to help it grow its market share or those that have supplementary products, he added.
Sigurd has a capitalization of NT$3.66 billion and total assets of NT$9.397 billion.
It operates four factories in Taiwan and China, with a total workforce of 1,600, according to the company’s Web site.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”