Gudeng Equipment Co Ltd (家碩科技), a supplier of semiconductor equipment and components used in advanced chip manufacturing processes, yesterday said it has tentatively set a price of NT$216.8 per share for its debut on the Taipei Exchange next month at the earliest.
The price represents about a 15 percent premium compared with the auction price of NT$188.52 a share, which was based on the average trading price of the company’s shares on the Emerging Stock Market over a 30-day period before the auction.
Investors would be able to buy Gudeng Equipment shares through an auction or via subscription. Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) is underwriting the initial public offering (IPO).
Photo: CNA
Gudeng Equipment offers automotive extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) pod surface inspection tools, a critical tool for EUV pod quality management.
Gudeng Equipment is 47.19 percent owned by Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole EUV pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電).
TSMC was the world’s first chipmaker to utilize EUV tools in producing an advanced version of its 7-nanometer chips in 2019 and now on more advanced chips.
Gudeng Equipment gave a bullish view about the company’s business prospects as a significant expansion in capital spending by the world’s major chipmakers on advanced technologies would provide a boon to the company, chairman Bill Chiu (邱銘乾) told investors on Monday.
“We are to benefiting from the AI [artificial intelligence] boom as more companies are joining the ranks of AMD and Nvidia in developing AI chips,” Chiu said.
Global semiconductor equipment spending on front-end facilities is expected to grow 21 percent year-on-year this year to US$92 billion, with Taiwan continuing to be the biggest spender, SEMI has forecast.
For Gudeng Equipment, China is to be a new growth engine as Chinese chipmakers are racing to produce advanced chips, Chiu said.
China accounted for a mere 3 percent of the company’s total revenue last year, while Taiwan contributed about 70 percent and the US 13 percent.
Since a key customer operates chip manufacturing facilities in Ireland, Gudeng Equipment has also started shipping equipment to that nation.
To cope with rising demand, Gudeng Equipment is planning to build a new factory in Tainan later this year, it said.
Gudeng Equipment last year posted a net profit of NT$228 million, up 12.32 percent from NT$203 million in 2022. Gross margin improved to 49 percent last year from 43 percent the previous year.
Revenue grew 15.24 percent year-on-year to NT$1.21 billion last year from NT$1.05 billion.
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