TSMC cuts stake in SMIC

TSMC reportedly cuts stake in SMIC

Commercial Times; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 6 September 2012]

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has sold off almost 191 million shares of Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) at HK$0.291 (US$0.04) each, cutting its stake in the China foundry to 7.63% from 8.22%, according to a recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

TSMC previously received 1,789,493,218 Hong-Kong listed ordinary shares of SMIC as part of an agreement reached between the two companies in late-2009 to settle their trade secrets dispute.

In other news, SMIC has reported that revenues for the second quarter of 2012 climbed 26.8% sequentially and 19.7% from a year earlier to a record US$421.8 million. SMIC credited the positive sales performance to rising sales generated from its 65nm/55nm process technologies, and specialty processes for the manufacture of power management ICs, EEPROM and others.

Thanks to a higher utilization rate, SMIC saw its gross margin double to 24.1% in the second quarter from 12% in the first. The firm swung to net profits of US$7.1 million in second-quarter 2012, compared to the losses generated in the prior quarter and a year ago.