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.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
RSS