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.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS