Shares of contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) yesterday rose by more than 50 percent on its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), buoyed by a rosy outlook for the pure-play wafer foundry industry amid tight global supply, dealers said.
Shares of Powerchip Semiconductor closed at NT$75.90, up 52.1 percent from its issuance price of NT$49.90, helping offset the impact on the local market of US market losses on Friday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ lost 1.92 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.17 percent due to disappointing US jobs data, dealers said.
Newly listed stock in Taiwan is not restricted by the maximum daily increase or decrease of 10 percent during its first five trading sessions.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Soon after the local equity market opened, Powerchip Semiconductor’s stock price rose 56.31 percent. Its strong showing continued until the end of the session, as investors took their cues from the company’s strong bottom line in the first nine months of this year.
In the first nine months, Powerchip Semiconductor posted a record NT$9.89 billion in net profit, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$3.07.
Analysts expect its EPS for the whole year to hit NT$4.50 on the back of a robust fourth quarter.
Powerchip Semiconductor generated NT$58.75 billion (US$2.12 billion) in consolidated sales for the first 11 months, up 40.76 percent year-on-year, because the global market did not have enough supply to meet demand.
Powerchip Semiconductor, one of four contract chipmakers in Taiwan, specializes in mature technologies. It owns two 8-inch wafer fabs with a monthly capacity of 110,000 units and three 12-inch wafer plants with a monthly capacity of 110,000 units.
The other three contract chipmakers are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — the world’s largest with a share of more than 50 percent of the global market — United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) and Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進).
Powerchip Semiconductor is the sixth-largest contract chipmaker in the world and the third-largest in Taiwan after TSMC and UMC, company chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) said at its initial public offering (IPO) ceremony yesterday.
Huang said he has high hopes that Powerchip Semiconductor will soon become the fifth-largest contract chipmaker in the world, citing orders that the company has secured.
Powerchip Semiconductor’s predecessor was Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), a DRAM supplier that experienced heavy losses in a DRAM cyclical downturn in 2012. Huang was the company’s chief executive officer.
The DRAM maker sold its assets to US-based Micron Technology Inc and delisted from the TWSE in December 2012.
Huang oversaw the restructuring of Powerchip Technology, which transformed into a pure-play wafer foundry business that produced driver ICs for flat panels, imaging processors and power management chips, enabling it to repay its bank loan of NT$120 billion and turn a profit.
Powerchip Technology then spun off its pure-play wafer foundry business, which became Powerchip Semiconductor.
According to the contract chipmaker, its major clients have rushed to sign long-term contracts to secure supplies and deflect the impact of the current supply shortage.
The TWSE said that Powerchip Semiconductor’s robust showing resulted in its market capitalization hitting NT$258.82 billion, the highest figure among all firms that have launched an IPO on the main board in the past three years.
Through the IPO, the company has raised enough to build its planned NT$100 billion plant in Miaoli County, Huang said.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in