DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) expects to book an asset disposal gain of NT$18.64 billion (US$582.6 million) after selling its stake in a DRAM venture with Micron Technology Inc to the US memorychip maker, a company executive said yesterday.
The sale would add earnings per share of about NT$6.78 to Nanya’s bottom line this quarter after deducting taxes and related costs, the company said.
The Taoyuan-based firm will obtain total proceeds of NT$47.62 billion after trasferring 1.59 billion shares of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) to Micron at NT$30 per share, the company said.
The deal will not only help Nanya raise the funds it needs to migrate its technology to cost-efficient 20-nanometer process, but also help it secure next-generation technological sources via an equity investment in Micron, the company said.
As part of the share sale deal, Nanya allocated a major portion of the proceeds, or about NT$31.46 billion, to subscribe to 57.78 million Micron shares, or about a 5.26 percent stake in the US company.
The transaction was completed on Saturday, making Nanya Micron’s third-largest stakeholder.
“Upon the completion of the deal, Nanya and Micron have entered a new phase in their strategic partnership,” Nanya president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a media briefing yesterday.
Nanya plans to spend one-third of the total proceeds on technological migration from Micron, Lee said.
By the end of next year, Nanya plans to convert half of its total annual capacity of 60,000 wafers from the 30-nanometer process to the more cost-efficient 20-nanometer, the company said.
The migration is to cost NT$40 billion, it added.
Nanya does not plan to begin a new round of technology migration any time soon, Lee said.
Micron in October agreed to pay NT$132.5 billion to buy a 67 percent stake of Inotera from Nanya and the subsidiaries of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團).
The transaction is to be concluded today, when Inotera is to be delisted from the local stock market.
Separately, Nanya said it is confident about DRAM chip demand.
“Demand will slightly exceed supply in the fourth quarter,” Lee said.
Lee expects the DRAM market to remain stable in the next six months.
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