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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (13395)	2/17/2004 11:43:54 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95761

VIS quadruples 2004 capex to boost capacity by 15% Josephine Lien, Hans Wu and Samson Yu, Taipei; Jack Lu, DigiTimes.com [Tuesday 17 February 2004] Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) will quadruple its 2004 capital expenditures to NT$4.2 billion (about US$127 million) to boost its capacity by 15% to 52,000 8-inch equivalent wafers per month, said company chairman Paul Chien in a February 16 investors conference. The budget came in higher than VIS projected. In a November 18 investors conference last year, Chien said that VIS would budget NT$2 billion to NT$3 billion for this year. The majority of this year’s capex will be used to boost VIS’s capacity for LCD driver IC production using high voltage 0.35- to 0.25-micron technologies, Chien said. Strong sales for LCD driver IC foundry services helped boost VIS’s sales by 22% sequentially to NT$3.3 billion in the fourth quarter, which was split 65:35 between logic IC foundry services and own-brand DRAM production. Chien expects the mix will improve to 75:25 in the second quarter. VIS’s business will have transformed into a pure foundry model starting from the third quarter of this year, he added. In addition to logic foundry services, VIS is also eyeing NOR flash foundry business. VIS began producing a small volume of NOR flash for US-based Silicon Storage Technology (SST) in the third quarter of last year. A company source said that VIS has significantly improved its yield rate on 0.18-micron processes this year and may co-develop a more advanced 0.165-micron technology for NOR flash with SST. In related news, VIS’s board of directors approved a NT$13.5 billion reduction in the company’s capital, or 48.3% of its current paid-in capital, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) yesterday. After the reduction, VIS will have NT$14.5 billion in paid-in capital. VIS chairman Paul Chien unveiling the company’s fourth-quarter results at a February 16 investors conference Photo: Allen Lin, DigiTimes VIS: 4Q 2003 financial performance (NT$m) 4Q 2003 Q/Q Y/Y 2003 Y/Y Net sales 3,293 21.5% 73.2% 10,905 31.3% Gross profits 462 - - (65) - Operating profits 195 - - (1,657) - Pre-tax profits 350 (20.6%) - 178 - Net profits 350 (20.6%) - 178 - Source: company, compiled by DigiTimes, February 2004