Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) plans sale of global depositary receipts (GDRs) to raise working capital for its operations as the company looks to cash in on the overall recovery of the global semiconductor sector.
The company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it would sell GDRs in a quantity equal to up to 420 million common shares.
That translates to a fund-raising potential of around NT$26.3 billion (US$831.5 million) based on the company’s closing price of NT$62.6 yesterday.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Powerchip, which provides foundry services in advanced memory chips and logic chips, said it would issue new shares for the GDR sale.
The company has scheduled a general meeting on April 10 to discuss the common share issuance and the GDR deal as well as a reshuffle of its board of directors, it said.
In addition to boosting its working capital, the proceeds of the GDR sale would be used to repay bank loans and meet fund demand for future growth, the company said.
The GDR sale is the second move by Powerchip to raise funds in just days after the company announced on Saturday last week that it signed an exclusive letter of intent (LOI) with US-based DRAM maker Micron Technology Inc to sell its P5 fab in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) for US$1.8 billion.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year, the company said.
Under the LOI, Micron will set up a long-term foundry relationship with Powerchip on advanced DRAM packaging wafer manufacturing and help the company strengthen its specialty DRAM processes.
After the Tongluo plant sale, the company will reorganize its production resources, including its three 12-inch and two 8-inch wafer fabs, to tackle the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said in a separate statement.
The company will focus on value-added wafer foundry products for AI applications such as 3D AI DRAMs, wafer-on-wafer packaging technology, silicon interposers and integrated passive devices, power management chips and power components, he said.
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