Epistar Corp (晶元光電), the nation’s biggest LED chipmaker, yesterday said it would raise its holdings in Huga Optotech Inc (廣鎵光電) to 100 percent from the existing 48 percent via a share swap worth NT$3.47 billion (US$116 million).
The consolidation came as oversupply and sluggish demand brought most LED companies into the red in the first quarter and their outlook was dim amid persistent economic uncertainty in Europe.
The acquisition aimed to enhance the company’s efficiency and boost its competitiveness, Epistar said in a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Epistar shareholders would obtain 4.85 Huga shares for each of Epistar common share, according to the statement. This offering means that Epistar will pay NT$12.68 per Huga share, a 1.44 percent premium, compared with Huga’s closing price of NT$12.5 yesterday.
Epistar will issue 56.45 million new common shares, totaling NT$3.47 billion, to Huga shareholders based on Epistar’s closing price of NT$61.5 yesterday.
The transaction is expected to be closed on Dec. 28.
Huga would become a fully-owned LED chip unit of Epistar and after that the company will be delisted from the local stock market.
Epistar said the deal would have a positive impact on the company’s profits and net value, because the company’s scale would expand and costs would be reduced.
The company will operate about 300 units of MOVCD machines after the transaction, making it the world’s No. 2 LED chipmaker.
Epistar lost NT$515 million in the first quarter, while Huga lost NT$57 million after booking NT$1.14 billion in losses for last year.
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
EXPORT GROWTH: The AI boom has shortened chip cycles to just one year, putting pressure on chipmakers to accelerate development and expand packaging capacity Developing a localized supply chain for advanced packaging equipment is critical for keeping pace with customers’ increasingly shrinking time-to-market cycles for new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday. Spurred on by the AI revolution, customers are accelerating product upgrades to nearly every year, compared with the two to three-year development cadence in the past, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC Global Summit organized by SEMI in Taipei. These shortened cycles put heavy pressure on chipmakers, as the entire process — from chip design to mass
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
RSS