Chip testing and packaging services provider Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) yesterday said it plans to acquire a controlling stake in a local chip packaging service provider to bolster its technological capabilities via a NT$1.62 billion (US$53.1 million) acquisition bid for Singapore’s Bloomberia Ltd.
The 100 percent acquisition of Bloomberia wouild allow Sigurd to directly hold that company’s 51.88 percent share of local chip packager Winstek Semiconductor Co (台星科). Bloomberia is currently a fully owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.
The all-cash acquisition is to help Sigurd obtain wafer-level packaging technologies owned by Winston, which are the missing piece in Sigurd’s advanced technology roadmap, company chairman Sidney Huang (黃興陽) said yesterday.
Sigurd has been developing wafer-level testing and packaging technologies to cope with growing demand for new-generation and advanced chips that are used in virtual reality devices, Internet-of-Things applications and autonomous cars, as well as in mobile phones, Huang.
“We believe this deal will help the company enter the supply chain of the world’s major chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co [TSMC, 台積電] and GlobalFoundries,” Huang said.
“That is because we will be able to provide a total solution for wafer-level testing and packaging services,” Huang added.
In the agreement, Sigurd has offered to buy each Winstek share at NT$23 per share, a discount of 6.88 percent compared with Winstek’s closing price of NT$24.7 yesterday on the Taipei Stock Exchange.
Sigurd expects to wrap up the deal by the end of this year at the earliest. The transaction is subjected to the approval of the Investment Commission.
Winstek made NT$239 million in net profit in the first quarter of this year. That translated into earnings per share of NT$1.76. Revenue stood at NT$654 million.
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