Embedded microprocessor intellectual property (IP) supplier Andes Technology Corp (晶心科技), a subsidiary of leading Taiwanese integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科), saw its shares soar on the company’s Taiwan Stock Exchange debut yesterday.
Buying was fueled by hopes that MediaTek would place more orders with the subsidiary, boosting its sales, while many investors have been attracted by the high profit margin enjoyed by the supplier, dealers said.
Andes shares rose 191.09 to close at NT$189.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, whie the TAIEX ended up 0.48 at 9,744.21.
Shares soared about 107 percent from their issue price of NT$65.1 soon after the main board opened and continued to rise until the close of trading.
“Many investors chased Andes shares because of its rich parent — MediaTek — in the hope that Taiwan’s largest IC designer will continue to patronize its subsidiary,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said.
MediaTek chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) is also chairman of Andes.
Apart from intellectual property used in communications chips, smartphone touch chips and storage chips, Andes said it also supplies products for the Internet of Things, automotive electronics and Internet equipment.
According to Andes, eight of the top 15 IC designers in Taiwan are its customers, with MediaTek being the largest, while three of the 10 leading IC design houses in South Korea are also placing orders.
Andes said it has secured orders from IC designers owned by large telecom operators and home-appliance firms in Japan and from Internet equipment suppliers in the US, with more than 165 sales contracts.
Andes said in its main board listing prospectus that it generated 66.37 percent of its sales in the domestic market and the remainder overseas.
The company is the fifth-largest intellectual property supplier in the world after ARM, Synopsys, Imagination and Cadence.
“Strong interest in Andes shares reflects its high profit margin, since an IP supplier has no need for production, but receives royalties on products it provides. I think the listing will prompt institutional investors to follow the shares,” Su said.
Andes said its gross margin is more than 98 percent.
Andes shares were previously traded on the emerging market from Aug. 6, 2015.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS