TPK Raises Capital by US$436 M. from Abroad

Taipei, Sept. 28, 2012 (CENS)--TPK Holdings Ltd., the world's largest supplier of touch panels by market share now, has finalized its capital increase by US$436 million, with US$236 million from the issuance of global depositary receipts (GDRs) and the remainder from five-year euro convertible bonds (ECB) issued.

TPK sold its GDRs at US$13.42 (about NT$393.53) perunit and set a conversion price of NT$452.68 for issued ECBs. Potential share dilution from the issuing of two kinds of certificates is estimated at 5.2% and 3.8%, respectively.

The company indicated that the raised money will be poured into expanding its production lines to ramp out output of one-glass solution (OGS) touch panels, which have been heavily needed due to its smaller sizes and lighter weight than ordinary models.

Institutional investors said that TPK is prompted to boost its capacity mainly by surging orders for medium and large-sized touch panels used in tablet PCs from Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, not to mention that it has also been contracted to supply three-fourth of the components needed worldwide for laptops.

Noteworthily, TPK's chief financial officer Freddie Liu refuted some institutional investors' statements that his company's September revenue will decline from August due partly to shortage of needed parts and components, and partly to appreciation of New Taiwan dollars against greenback. Liu stressed that his company optimistically forecasts its sales revenue to keep trending upward month by month in the remainder of this year, with overall operating performance to peak in the fourth quarter, when its production lines will be fully booked.

Riding on persistently growing popularity of touch panel applications, TPK is estimated to finish the whole year with EPS (earnings per share) of NT$40 at least.