Nanya Technology Corp (“옱‰È‹Z) yesterday said its board of directors approved a plan to acquire a 5 percent stake in Micron Technology Inc for about NT$31.46 billion (US$1 billion), making the local DRAM chipmaker the largest shareholder of the US memorychip giant.

Nanya will subscribe to 57.78 million new common shares issued by Micron at US$17.29 per share through a private placement, the company said in a statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

That represents a 0.69 percent discount on Micronfs closing price of US$17.41 on Tuesday.

As part of the deal, Nanya will also obtain an option to license Micronfs next-generation DRAM manufacturing technologies.

The Taoyuan-based chipmaker said it would not rush into a new round of technological upgrades, as it is still focusing on converting its 30-nanometer (nm) chips into 20nm chips.

The company might not license Micronsf new-generation DRAM technologies until the second half of next year, it said.

The acquisition of Micron shares is part of a broader buyout deal launched by Micron, which aims to boost its shareholding of its local DRAM manufacturing arm Inotera Memories Inc (‰Ø˜±‰È‹Z) to 100 percent.

Micron agreed to offer NT$132.5 billion to buy a remaining 67 percent share of Inotera from Nanya and subsidiaries of Formosa Group (‘ä‘YWš£).

The transaction is expected to be completed by early next month.

Nanya is to obtain NT$47.6 billion by selling its 24.2 percent stake in Inotera to Micron. The chipmaker plans to use part of the proceeds to pay for Micronfs new shares.

Nanya will still book pre-tax income of NT$16.14 billion in the current quarter from unloading Inotera shares. That will add NT$5.87 per share to the memory hip makerfs pre-tax earnings per share this quarter.

In related news, Nanyafs board of directors yesterday gave the go-ahead for the issuance of US$500 million in overseas convertible bonds to finance its technological migration to 20nm chips.

By: DocMemory
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