Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋), the world’s largest pure-play gallium arsenide (GaAs) foundry, on Friday said it has agreed to sell 20 million shares to Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte for about NT$5.54 billion (US$184.57 million) via a private placement.
The share sale would make Avago a strategic investor owning about a 4 percent stake in Win and would help strengthen the partnership between the two companies, Win said.
In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Win said it would sell 20 million new common shares to Avago at NT$277 each between Saturday and Dec. 22.
The price represents a 3.15 percent discount compared with the company’s closing share price of NT$286 on Friday on the Taipei Exchange.
The Taoyuan-based company said it plans to use the proceeds to finance its capital spending, boost research and development activities and replenish its operating capital.
The chipmaker has spent NT$2.53 billion on capital expenditures in the first three quarters of this year, according to a presentation document released on the company’s Web site following its quarterly earnings conference in October.
In the document, the company did not disclose its full-year budget for capital spending.
Local media on Friday reported that the number would exceed NT$3 billion, citing the company.
Win has also inked a memorandum of understanding with Avago to acquire a batch of manufacturing equipment for up to US$37 million from the Singaporean firm’s heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) production lines, a separate stock exchange filing released on Friday said.
Based on the agreement, Win said it had secured all foundry orders from the HBT production lines, which “will have a positive effect on both companies,” the filing said.
Win provides foundry services for GaAs components used in mobile applications, including smartphones.
The company’s main products include power amplifier (PA) chips, Wi-Fi-linked components and infrastructure-related applications, such as those for base stations, optical fiber networks, satellite communications and national defense applications.
The company has surpassed its peers by patenting its own process technology and is already capable of making 5G PA chips, giving it a lead over its rivals, analysts say.
The company in October forecast that revenue this quarter would grow by a low double-digit percentage from a historic high of NT$4.4 billion last quarter, supported by strong customer demand, while gross margin was expected to stay flat at 37.8 percent from the third quarter.
Net income last quarter rose 16 percent annually to NT$1.16 billion with earnings per share of NT$2.93, which exceeded market expectations, thanks to seasonally stronger smartphone demand, non-operating gains and growing contribution from its vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, which is a semiconductor-based laser diode and a major lighting source for 3D sensing.
In the first three quarters of the year, the company’s net income totaled NT$2.39 billion, up 6 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$6.02.
Win shares have risen 214.63 percent this year, compared with the over-the-counter bourse’s 15.36 percent increase over the period, Taipei Exchange data showed.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last