ProMOS Technologies Inc (
The company plans to sell US$400 million in shares overseas and US$150 million in Euro-convertible bonds, ProMOS spokesman Albert Lin said. Underwriters haven't been hired yet.
The Taiwan chipmaker scrapped a US$423 million domestic stock sale last September as memory chip prices and its shares tumbled.
With prices hovering at record lows, the pitch to investors will be: `It's time to leapfrog rivals and gear up to make chips cheaper.'
"ProMOS's prospects of gaining market share in the next upturn are good," said Keon Han, an analyst with Bear Stearns Asia Ltd. "Prices are low, but in a downturn, companies must invest for the upturn." Spot-market prices for benchmark 128Mb DRAM chips that ProMOS makes have dropped to a record low of US$1.86.
Lin said he expects prices to rebound next year. "Even in a downturn it makes sense to expand," he said.
ProMOS and Infineon are among only three DRAM makers around the world planning to pioneer technology next year to make 300mm wafers, compared with the current 200mm wafers that are the industry standard.
The larger wafers are expected to reduce finished chip production costs by about 30 percent, analysts said.
ProMOS, which has built the shell for a 300mm wafer production facility in Hsinchu and said it plans to use proceeds from its fundraising efforts to equip the factory. Commercial production is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.
It also plans a second plant in Taiwan, with production planned to begin in 2004.
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