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Technology Stocks : Amkor Technology Inc (AMKR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tech101 who wrote (312)	7/21/1999 1:35:00 PM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1056

Anam Semiconductor Sells Unit to France's Legrand for $38 Mln Anam Semiconductor Sells Unit to France's Legrand for $38 Mln Seoul, July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Anam Semiconductor Inc., South Korea's largest circuit board maker, said it will sell its home appliance and industrial wiring unit to Legrand SA of France, a maker of household electrical fittings, for 45 billion won ($38 million). Anam Semiconductor plans to use the proceeds to cut debt. The firm holds half of Korea's 50 billion won switch market. Its unit makes circuit breakers, home automation systems and remote- control switches for household and industrial use. ''We'll use 100 percent of the proceeds to repay debt,'' said Choi Nag Youn, a manager at Anam Semiconductor. ''The sale is part of our parent group's efforts to narrow our focus to the semiconductor industry.'' Legrand SA has agreed to take on the 208 employees at the Anam Semiconductor unit and will use Anam Semiconductor's brand name for the next 10 years, an Anam Semiconductor official said. Legrand SA is a unit of France's Legrand Group, which produces low-voltage electrical devices and accessories such as switches, sockets, remote-control devices and fuses. The company has subsidiaries and offices in 43 countries. Anam Semiconductor's parent, the Anam Group, declared insolvency in March and is participating in a government- sponsored workout program, under which the government arranges a rescheduling of its debt in exchange for its following an approved restructuring plan. In May, Anam Semiconductor sold one of its four packaging plants for $575 million to Amkor Technology Inc. of the U.S. Anam Semiconductor expects a net profit of 120.7 billion won in the first half, up 82 percent from the same period last year thanks to the plant sale in May and rising chip prices. It expects to reduce its debt-to-equity ratio to 8.7 times in the first half of the year from 17.5 times a year ago, Choi said. Anam Semiconductor shares surged by the 15 percent daily limit today to 18,300 won, a 52-week high. quote.bloomberg.com

To: tech101 who wrote (312)	7/21/1999 9:24:00 PM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1056

Tomorrow Shall NOT Be Just Another Day Orders for Back-End Services Increase in Korea By B. H. Seo EE Times 07/21/99, 1:24 p.m. EDT) eet.com SEOUL, South Korea — Orders for semiconductor packaging and test continue to surge in South Korea, indicating that the country's chip exports are beginning to recover from an industry-wide downturn. IC assemblers such as Korea Signetics and ChipPAC Korea have recently reported large increases in overseas orders for IC packaging, testing and other post-processing steps. Orders have surged to the point where they exceed the companies' current production capacity. Observers said the uptick is being driven by wired and wireless communications, regional increases in PC production and an overall rise in semiconductor output. Declining investment last year in processing capacity is also seen as contributing to the recent inability of some companies to keep up with current demand. Moreover, several major chip makers with in-house packaging and testing operations are beginning to outsource the work to companies like Korea Signetics that specialize in the service. In this way, chip makers can avoid the costly investment in packaging and testing facilities. Worried about a lack of capacity as chip exports increase, some chip makers are even booking package and test facilities one to two years in advance. Hence, industry analysts predict packaging and testing firms should remain busy for the foreseeable future. Right now, packaging and testing specialists are running their production lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week while at the same time expanding their production facilities. Anam Semiconductor Co., a leading packaging and test firm, said it received orders for 640 million packaged units in June. That's a record for the company, and represents a 50 percent rise in packaging orders over the same period last year. Test orders also rose sharply over June 1998 levels, Anam said. Korea Signetics said semiconductor packaging sales had increased 40 percent by February. ChipPAC Korea, recently sold by Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. to U.S. investors, said packaging orders have doubled since the beginning of the year, prompting the company to consider expanding its production facilities. Taiwanese packaging companies with operations here also said orders were on the rise. Taiwan's ASE, which recently took over Motorola Korea's Paju plant and converted it to packaging operations, said the plant's capacity cannot keep up with the flood of orders from semiconductor customers. Exclusive to EE Times by Chom Dan Inc. (Seoul, South Korea)