UMC to float US$689.595 million worth of GDRs
Taipei, July 12, 2001 (CENS)--United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), the world's second largest provider of wafer foundry services listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE), will issue GDRs (global depositary receipts) worth US$689.595 million.
The Securities & Futures Commission under the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday gave the green light for the issuance.
In September 2000, UMC floated 90 million units of ADRs (American depositary receipts), equivalent to 450 million common shares of its stock, in the U.S. for the first time. The ADRs were floated at a price of US$14.35 per unit, with the translated price in NT$ per share 15% higher than the TSE closing price of NT$78 per share one day before the issuing day.
Due to the sluggish global semiconductor market, UMC's business performance has significantly fallen off. Consequently, the ADR price dropped to US$8.02 per unit on July 10.
UMC will put up 447.7889 million common shares for the GDR issuance. With reference to the current price level of ADRs, UMC plans to set the unit price of its GDRs at US$7.7, equivalent to raising US$689.595 million in total. The common shares for the GDR issuance belong to a few large shareholders of UMC, including SanDisk. Lehman Brothers will be the main underwriter of the GDRs.
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