Epistar Corp (晶元光電), the nation’s biggest LED chipmaker, yesterday said it would raise its holdings in Huga Optotech Inc (廣鎵光電) to 100 percent from the existing 48 percent via a share swap worth NT$3.47 billion (US$116 million).
The consolidation came as oversupply and sluggish demand brought most LED companies into the red in the first quarter and their outlook was dim amid persistent economic uncertainty in Europe.
The acquisition aimed to enhance the company’s efficiency and boost its competitiveness, Epistar said in a statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Epistar shareholders would obtain 4.85 Huga shares for each of Epistar common share, according to the statement. This offering means that Epistar will pay NT$12.68 per Huga share, a 1.44 percent premium, compared with Huga’s closing price of NT$12.5 yesterday.
Epistar will issue 56.45 million new common shares, totaling NT$3.47 billion, to Huga shareholders based on Epistar’s closing price of NT$61.5 yesterday.
The transaction is expected to be closed on Dec. 28.
Huga would become a fully-owned LED chip unit of Epistar and after that the company will be delisted from the local stock market.
Epistar said the deal would have a positive impact on the company’s profits and net value, because the company’s scale would expand and costs would be reduced.
The company will operate about 300 units of MOVCD machines after the transaction, making it the world’s No. 2 LED chipmaker.
Epistar lost NT$515 million in the first quarter, while Huga lost NT$57 million after booking NT$1.14 billion in losses for last year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS