Ta Chen Stainless Pipe Co Ltd (大成不鏽鋼), a leading global supplier and mass distributor of stainless, aluminum and nickel alloy products, is to acquire Empire Resources Inc for US$58 million to expand the Taiwanese company’s presence in the US market.
“The merger and acquisition [M&A] deal is expected to enlarge the company’s operational scale, efficiency and competitiveness in the industry,” Ta Chen said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Saturday.
Ta Chen’s US subsidiary, Ta Chen International Inc, is the largest mass distributor of stainless metal products with a 30 percent market share in the US, while NASDAQ-listed Empire is the second-biggest, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said, quoting Ta Chen officials.
The report said the deal could secure Ta Chen’s leadership position in the US market.
Currently, Ta Chen holds a 4.96 percent stake in Empire, the filing said.
The two companies have entered a definitive merger agreement that Ta Chen will invest US$7 per share, or approximately US$58 million, to acquire Empire, Empire said in a news release.
Empire said the US$7 per share price represents a premium of approximately 19.2 percent over Empire’s average closing price during the January-to-March period this year.
“We believe that customers of both companies will benefit from Empire’s services and Ta Chen’s Internet platform, delivery capabilities and extensive warehouse network in the US,” Empire president and chief executive officer Nathan Kahn said in the statement.
Kahn said Empire will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ta Chen, while its management team and reporting structure would remain unchanged this year.
Kahn and Empire vice president and chief financial officer Sandra Kahn, who together hold a 46.3 percent stake in the company, have agreed to tender their shares to the offer, the statement said.
The acquisition is expected to be completed on May 15, Ta Chen said.
Ta Chen on Friday last week reported net income of NT$485.74 million (US$16.01 million) for last year, a reversal from its net loss of NT$288.06 million recorded in the previous year.
Earnings per share were NT$0.61, compared with a loss of NT$0.36 per share in the previous year.
The company’s cash and cash equivalents stood at NT$3.35 billion as of Dec. 31 last year, its filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange show.
Ta Chen’s board approved plans to distribute a NT$0.5 per share cash dividend and a stock dividend of NT$0.3 per share based on last year’s earnings.
The plans represent a cash payout ratio of 81.96 percent and a yield of 2.8 percent based on its closing price of NT$17.85 in Taipei trading last week.
Ta Chen shares have risen 1.42 percent since the beginning of the year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data show.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS