ProMOS begins to market shares to overseas investors

ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), a computer memory chipmaker, has begun marketing new shares to overseas investors worth about NT$6.2 billion (US$180 million) to buy machinery and equipment to increase output.

The company, a venture between Infineon Technologies AG of Germany and Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽) of Taiwan, is seeking US$177 million from the sale after paying bankers and other expenses, according to documents distributed to investors.

ProMOS and its bankers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, began marketing 300 million new shares yesterday, said ProMOS spokeswoman Fiona Liu.

Shareholder Mosel will sell some of its 48.7 percent stake in ProMOS as part of the sale to raise money to help repay NT$4.2 billion of bonds and loans due by January, Mosel Vice President Thomas Chang (張東隆) said earlier.

ProMOS's shares have fallen by more than half since a high on Feb. 19 of NT$41.70. They have fallen 5 percent since the company decided in September to go ahead with the sale.

ProMOS first announced plans to sell US$150 million of shares and US$150 million of bonds convertible into shares in July. The shares have since lost one-quarter of their value.

The company plans to invest in a plant that makes 300mm wafers, which may cut production costs by almost a third and more than double the number of chips that can be cut from a single piece of silicon.

The company hired Deutsche Bank AG to help it sell the bonds in the second half of this year, Liu said. She didn't say how much the company planned to raise.

Deutsche resigned from helping Goldman sell the shares for ProMOS, avoiding a conflict of interest that may have arisen from Deutsche's sale of shares Thursday for rival memory chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體).