X

IPO Roundup: ChipPac struggles in debut

3 min read

Semiconductor manufacturing firm ChipPac Inc. (Nasdaq: CHPC) closed up 1/2 to 12 1/2 Wednesday in its debut, after pricing 10 million shares at $12 a piece, below its lowered range of $13 to $15 a share.

The offering, underwritten by CS First Boston, was cut drastically from an original plan to offer 15.5 million shares at $20 to $22 a piece.

ChipPac makes semiconductor packaging and test services. Ball grid array packages make up a majority of the company's business; they are used in computing and communications devices including Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) Inc.'s CDMA chipsets. It also makes packaging and test services for flash memory manufacturers including Atmel Corporation, Intel Corporation (Nasdaq: INTC), STMicroelectronics N.V., Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd., which formerly owned the business.

Intel, Hyundai, Qualcomm and Intersil will all be minority shareholders of the firm upon completion of the offering.

ChipPak earned $7.1 million on sales of $120 million in the quarter ended March 31. The firm has been profitable on a pro forma basis since 1999, when it earned $18.97 million, on sales of $477 million for the year.

ChipPak competes with ASAT Holdings (Nasdaq: ASTT) and ST Assembly (Nasdaq: STTS)

  • Another semiconductor offering Tuesday is Tvia (Nasdaq: TVIA), which closed unchanged at 11 after pricing 5 million shares at $11 each.

    TVIA makes integrated circuits for interactive TV sets and Internet access devices. The company's initial target was makers of Internet appliances, but it has expanded its marketing to include makers of set-top boxes and digital televisions.

    Though ChipPAC lowered its range, specialized semiconductor companies still draw interest on the IPO market, said Kenan Pollack of IPO Central.

    For the year ended March 31, the company had a net loss of $6.0 million on revenue of $7.1 million compared with a loss of 5.7 million on revenue of $1.5 million for the same period in 1999.

    Tvia's competitors include ATI Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATYT), Broadcom Corp (Nasdaq: BRCM), and it expects other companies such as IBM (NYSE: IBM) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) will enter the market as the Internet appliance, broadband set-top box and digital television markets become more established.

    Lead underwriter for the deal is Banc of America, co-managers include Dain Rauscher and CIBC World Markets.

  • Repeater Technologies (Nasdaq: RPTR), a maker of wireless infrastructure coverage systems for CDMA and PCS, closed up 8 to 17 after it priced 4.8 million shares at $9 each, in the middle of its $8 to $10 range.

    For the year ended March 26, the company had a loss of $10.57 million on revenue of $12.62 million compared to a loss of $12.62 million on revenue of $7.77 million for the same period in 1998.

    Repeater's competitors can be divided into two groups: base station manufacturers, such as Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), Lucent (NYSE: LU) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and wireless repeater manufacturers, such as Allen Telecom (NYSE: ALN) and Andrew Corporation (Nasdaq: ANDW)

    Underwriters for the deal are USB Piper Jaffray and Banc of America.

  • H Power (Nasdaq: HPOW) closed up 2 to 18 after it priced 7 million shares at $16 each, above its planned range of $11 to $13 a share.

    The company makes proton-exchange membrane fuel cells for power generation.

    Net loss for the year ended May 31 was $17.01 million in revenue of $3.68 million as opposed to a loss of $6.76 million on revenue of $1.07 million for the same period in 1999.

    Lead underwriter for the deal is Lehman Brothers. Co-managers are CIBC World Markets and DB Alex Brown.

  • RadView Software (Nasdaq: RDVW) fell 31/32 to 9 1/32 after it priced 5 million shares at the bottom of its $10 to $12 range.

    The company makes software to analyze the performance of web applications , and saw $5.1 million in sales for 1999, and $2.7 million in loss. Its primary competitors include Mercury Interactive (Nasdaq: MERQ), and Rational Software (Nasdaq: RATL).

    Lead underwriter for the deal is Donaldson Lufkin. Co-managers are USB Piper Jaffray and Wit SoundView.
    • IPO Insider >