Hsinchu, Taiwan, March 26, 2024 – GlobalWafers announced that it has priced the US$689 million Global Depositary Shares Issuance on March 26, 2024. A total of 42,000,000 GDSs are offered, to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Each GDS represents one common share of GlobalWafers. The offering price per GDS is US$16.40 (NT$522.68), a discount of 7.5% compared to the closing price of GlobalWafers’ common shares on the pricing date. The transaction raised a total of US$689 million (equivalent to NT$22 billion). The proceeds from the offering will be used for the procurement of raw materials.
The offering has achieved remarkable milestones and set multiple new records in the capital markets: The transaction represents the largest GDS offering by a Taiwan company in the past decade, the largest GDS offering globally since 2023, and the largest Asia TMT primary follow-on offering in 2024YTD.
Since the onset of 2023, the global surge in AI has resulted in a rally in the global equity market. The TWSE’s breakthrough beyond the 20,000 level in March 2024 also marked a groundbreaking record in the history of the Taiwanese equity market. The semiconductor market is expected to gradually recover in 2024, driven by increasing demands from a wide array of end market applications, including AI, 5G and autonomous driving, among others. GlobalWafers is optimistic about the long-term trend of the semiconductor industry. Multiple favorable factors, including the continuous push for infrastructure investment globally and a strong need for high-performance computing from the thriving digital economy, is expected to lead to robust demand growth for semiconductor wafers, especially advanced ones. GlobalWafers seized the market window to successfully price this offering. The transaction garnered significant interest from international investors including sovereign wealth funds, long-only investors, and existing shareholders, and received subscription orders totaling over US$2.5 billion, representing more than 3 times oversubscription. On the back of robust demand from investors, GlobalWafers was able to upsize the offering from 40,500,000 GDSs to 42,000,000 GDSs. This serves as a testament to GlobalWafers’ robust business performance, promising prospects, and the recognition from international investors.
“The successful conclusion of this GDS offering holds significant importance for GlobalWafers. The net proceeds from the GDS offering will be used to support our procurement of raw materials. In turn, we expect that our optimized financial position and improved liquidity profile will support our NT$100 billion capital expenditure plan to expand our presence in 12” and specialty wafers and compound semiconductors, thereby enabling us to capture the momentum in the recovery of the industry and solidify our leading position. We are extremely grateful for the acknowledgement from international capital markets and our investors. We will continue to improve overall operating performance and create greater value for our shareholders,” said Doris Hsu, Chairperson and CEO of GlobalWafers.
Citigroup Global Markets Limited is the Sole Global Coordinator and Sole Bookrunner for the issuance.