Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), China's biggest chipmaker, rose the most since its 2004 Hong Kong trading debut after saying it was in talks with an undisclosed suitor.
Negotiations to sell a "significant" stake to a strategic investor are at an advanced stage, the Chinese chipmaker said in a statement late on Monday.
The company's shares surged a record 19 percent to HK$0.54 (US$0.07) at the midday break.
Semiconductor Manufacturing's factories in China, the world's biggest chip consumer, makes it a target for global companies looking to win a bigger share of a chip market that may triple over the five years ending in 2010.
SMIC's shares have fallen 34 percent this year in Hong Kong, compared with a 21 percent decline in the benchmark stock index.
"The strategic investor may be one of Semiconductor Manufacturing's customers that wants access to their production capacity and would be able to bring in orders, which is a model that's been common practice in the chip industry," said Rick Hsu (徐禕成), an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc in Taipei, who rates SMIC's shares "neutral."
China became the world's biggest buyer of chips in 2005 as Nokia Oyj and Sony Corp produced more handsets, gaming consoles and other consumer electronics in the nation, research firm IC Insights Inc said.
Semiconductor sales in China may surge to US$124 billion in 2010 from US$40.8 billion in 2005, according to the Scottsdale, Arizona-based researcher.
Part of the company's management may also buy shares, the Shanghai-based SMIC said on Monday, without elaborating.
The chipmaker hasn't signed a binding agreement and the talks may not result in a transaction, it said.
SMIC spokeswoman Reiko Chang declined to comment beyond the statement.
The chipmaker has attracted interest before. Richard Chang (張汝京), chairman of Semiconductor Manufacturing, said last April that it was reviewing proposals from private equity funds.
Bain Capital LLC, General Atlantic LLC and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co sought to buy a 25 percent stake for US$600 million, the South China Morning Post reported earlier that month.
Rivals, including United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have had customers turn into shareholders. Royal Philips Electronics NV owned 5 percent of TSMC, the world's biggest manufacturer of custom-made chips, as of the end of last year.
TSMC sold more than NT$4 billion (US$132 million) of chips to Philips in 2006, TSMC has said.
Silicon Integrated Systems Corp, a customer of UMC, owned a 2.3 percent stake in the world's second-largest custom-chip maker as of last April, UMC has said.
UMC said on Monday that it was not in talks to buy a stake in Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS