Ardentec Corp (欣銓), a semiconductor tester, said it plans to launch a tender offer to acquire as much as 75 percent of local peer Giga Solution Technology Co (全智科技) for NT$2.17 billion (US$67.66 million) in cash.
The transaction would pave the way for Ardentec’s second-phase efforts to fully acquire Giga Solution, the companies said in a joint statement on Friday.
Giga Solution is to become a 100 percent subsidiary of Ardentec and delist its shares from the local stock market following the completion of the deal, the statement said.
The acquisition, the latest in the nation’s merger-and-acquisition spree, aims to boost the company’s market share and to speed up its expansion into the fledgling Internet of Things (IoT) market, Ardentec said in the statement.
Ardentec’s takeover of Giga Solution would be the third merger in the nation’s testing and packaging industry, following Sigurd Microelectronics Corp’s (矽格) consolidation of Test-Serv Inc (誠遠科技) and the world’s largest chip tester and packager Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (日月光半導體) acquisition of Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密).
“The strategic alliance will create complimentary effects in terms of technology and client, allowing the firms to capture the business opportunities in the IoT era,” Ardentec and Giga Solution said in the statement.
The cooperation “will also help expand their market shares,” the statement said.
Ardentec plans to buy between 35 percent and 75 percent of Giga Solution shares at NT$24 per share, representing a 9.84 percent premium compared with Giga Solution’s closing price of NT$21.85 on Friday, the statement said.
Giga Solution has a total of 120.51 million capital shares.
Giga Solution provides testing services for radio frequency integrated circuits and other communications integrated circuits such as long-term evolution (LTE) chips. The company’s top 10 clients, including the nation’s largest handset chip supplier MediaTek Inc (聯發科), contribute to about 90 percent of its overall revenues, Giga Solution said.
Giga Solution generated NT$1.53 billion in revenue last year. The Hsinchu-based company employees 500 people.
Ardentec, also headquartered in Hsinchu, operates four factories in Taiwan, one in Singapore and one in South Korea. The firm reported revenue of NT$5.92 billion last year, with about 31 percent from testing services for micro controller units. It counts NXP Semiconductors NV as one of its major clients.
Ardentec has 1,600 employees.
Separately, Ardentec’s board on Friday gave the go-ahead to a plan to subscribe to shares issued by Raytek Semiconductor Inc (瑞峰半導體) for NT$350 million, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Raytek, established in April, provides wafer-level testing services.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS