Compal Electronics Inc (
Compal sold 120 million shares at NT$40 (US$1.2) each in the form of global depositary receipts, said spokeswoman Dorothy Lee at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which arranged the sale. That's one-fifth less than the price announced in December. Each Compal GDR is equal to five shares.
Compal put off a share sale in March following a 9 percent slide in Taiwan's computer-oriented leading stock index during the last two weeks of February. Since then, the company said it expects to sell 100 times more parts to a unit of NEC Corp in the next five years, helping it ride out the slump in global demand for computers.
"Notebook companies are getting more orders from the US, allowing them to hold up much better than other computer makers," said Yvonne Leung, who helps manage US$2 billion for Towry Law (Asia) Hong Kong Ltd. "We see increasing outsourcing from the US and Japan, making Compal and others attractive." Compal plans to use NT$1.7 billion (US$51.6 million) of the proceeds to repay short-term bank loans and the rest for raw materials, according to a share sale document circulated among potential investors earlier this week.
The computer maker may raise US$18 million more under an option given to its bankers to sell an additional US15 million shares at the offer price of NT$40 apiece, depending on demand.
The sale was almost half the size first planned by the company, which said in December it wanted to raise about US$258 million selling 170 million shares at NT$50.3 apiece.
Compal's shares lost half of their value in 2000, souring investors' appetite for its stock.
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