Epistar Corp’s (晶電) board of directors has approved plans to spin off its semiconductor foundry business into a separate wholly owned entity, the LED chip manufacturer said yesterday.
Epistar said that the new unit, which has yet to be named, would be allocated enterprise value of about NT$1 billion (US$32.89 million) from its parent.
Epistar would gain 100 million shares in the new unit issued at a premium of NT$10 per share and a par value of NT$5 per share, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
As the amount of shares to be gained has the same value as the new unit, its earnings per share and net asset value per share performance would not be affected by the spin-off, it said.
While key personnel changes would take effect on July 16, the plan is scheduled to be implemented on Oct. 1.
Epistar president M.J. Chou (周銘俊) is to step down to take over as president of the new unit, but will retain his seat on the Epistar board, while he will be replaced by vice president of sales and marketing Patrick Fan (范進雍), the company said.
The new foundry unit would focus on contract manufacturing of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and gallium nitride chips, in a bid to diversify from the LED market, where Epistar has been facing stiff competition from Chinese rivals.
Epistar’s foundry unit has contributed annual sales of about NT$100 million to NT$200 million from the manufacturing of data communication chips, Chou said.
The new unit has begun negotiations with prospective customers, it is expected to ship out samples of 3D sensing chips in the final quarter of this year and report modest earnings before the end of next year, Chou said.
Epistar shareholders on Thursday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$0.11 per common share by allocating the company’s capital surplus.
Sales in the first five months fell 14.89 percent annually to NT$8.63 billion, with sales last month dipping 18.07 percent from April to NT$1.81 billion.
Epistar shares yesterday gained 0.78 percent in Taipei trading to close at NT$39.
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