Solar wafer manufacturer Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美矽晶) yesterday said that its board has approved an investment of NT$990 million (US$33.29 million) in Taiwan Special Chemical Corp (TSC, 台特化), the latest in a slew of mergers and acquisitions it has launched to deepen its diversification into the semiconductor industry.
SAS said it is accelerating its shift away from the slumping solar industry to avoid consistent losses.
The move came after its acquisition of GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) proved worthwhile, as the silicon wafer manufacturer’s strong profits have helped SAS halt its nonstop losses.
With the investment, SAS is to own a 30.93 percent stake in TSC, or 90 million shares, making it the largest shareholder of the supplier of key materials used in the production of semiconductors.
“SAS is enthusiastically extending its strategic deployment in the critical semiconductor supply chain, not only aiming to maximize group synergy, but also to minimize the potential effects on SAS from the volatile solar market,” the company said in a statement.
TSC, founded in 2013, is to become the first supplier in Asia of both disilane and trisilane, two key semiconductor chemicals, after it last year built a fab for their production, it said.
The fab in Changhua County has an installed annual capacity of 40 tonnes of disilane and 4 tonnes of trisilane, the statement said.
The chemicals are essential for process cooling and uniform circuit spread to improve yield rates, as semiconductors evolve to enable advanced processing and 3D integrated circuit design, it said.
TSC is to become the world’s third-largest high-purity disilance supplier after Voltaix LLC, and the second-biggest high-purity trisilance supplier after Japan’s Mitsui Chemical Inc, SAS said.
TSC is negotiating with potential clients to secure long-term supply agreements, SAS said.
SAS as of March 31 had accumulated NT$28.2 billion in cash, giving it sufficient leeway to launch the deal.
SAS reported that revenue last month climbed 29.35 percent year-on-year to NT$5.86 billion from NT$4.53 billion.
The company reported NT$713 million in net profit last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$1.23.
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