GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) has vaulted itself into the position of third-largest silicon wafer supplier in the world after it completed a deal to acquire NASDAQ-listed SunEdison Semiconductor Ltd.
The deal helps GlobalWafers take a 17 percent share of the global silicon wafer market, up from 7 percent, to compete with rivals such as Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd and Sumco Techxiv Corp. Before the deal, GlobalWafers was among the top six silicon wafer firms in the world.
In a statement released on Friday, GlobalWafers said that the acquisition is expected to allow the firm to have “a meaningful expansion of its production capabilities and breadth in product and global customer base, including greater access to [South] Korean and EU as well as SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) product technologies and capacity.”
GlobalWafers chairwoman and chief executive officer Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said in the statement that the company has 17 operation sites strategically located in 10 countries in all regions.
The deal is expected to boost GlobalWafers’ 12-inch silicon wafer annual production to 750,000 units from 200,000, and raise 8-inch silicon wafer production to more than 1 million units from 400,000 a year, the company said.
Shares of GlobalWafers fell 2.03 percent to close at NT$91.7 on Friday on the over-the-counter TPEX market. The stock has risen 18.17 percent so far this year.
Spun off from Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美晶) in 2011, GlobalWafers provides various wafer products to foundries, integrated device manufacturers and memory makers.
In August, GlobalWafers announced that it would acquire SunEdison for US$683 million or US$12 per share.
The deal came after GlobalWafers in July completed its acquisition of a silicon wafer division of Topsil Semiconductor Materials A/S, a leading manufacturer of float-zone wafers, for 320 million kroner (US$45.9 million).
SunEdison, the fourth-largest silicon wafer supplier globally, owns facilities in research and development, and manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Asia. The company’s technology enables the next generation of high-performance semiconductor devices and its 12-inch epitaxial wafers are largely used in advanced logic devices.
GlobalWafers vice president William Chen (陳偉文) said that SunEdison shares will be delisted from the NASDAQ market after the acquisition.
Chen said that SunEdison is planning to move its headquarters to Hsinchu in northern Taiwan, where GlobalWafers is based, to streamline its operations.
After the deal, SunEdison is expected to see its borrowing costs fall, which is expected to strengthen its financial conditions, Chen said, reiterating that GlobalWafers has faith that SunEdison will turn a profit next year on the back of improving operations.
Analysts have said the deal is good for GlobalWafers in terms of a complete product offering, a broader customer base and a meaningful industry consolidation.
However, GlobalWafers’ target of achieving a turnaround at SunEdison within a year appears “challenging,” although not impossible, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) analyst George Chang (張家麒) said in a note on Monday last week.
“There is room for improvement if industry demand can grow, or if management can quickly turn it around and gain more market share from other big suppliers,” Chang wrote.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS