Cirtek to double chips output in 3 years

MANILA, Philippines - Laguna-based electronics manufacturer Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. (CHPC) aims to double its output to nearly two billion units of microchips annually in the next three years, a top company official said.

CPHC chief finance officer Anthony Albert Buyawe said the company’s existing facility in Biñan, Laguna currently produces over 800 million units and is expected to increase to one billion units by yearend.

The company’s products are used in smartphones, table PCs, home entertainment systems, other consumer electronic products, industrial and office equipment, and automotive components.

CPHC is planning to raise around P628 million through a maiden offering of shares, possibly next month, in the stock market.

“Nothing official, but we will try mid-November,” said Ed Francisco, president of BDO Capital, the lead underwriter for CHPC’s initial public offering involving a total of 61.82 million common shares, representing up to 34 percent of the chipmaker’s issued and outstanding capital. The offer price was set at a maximum price of P10.68 each share.

Proceeds from the offering will be used for the construction of a third building which will add 180,000 square feet of space, as well as the acquisition of new equipment and machinery.

Buyawe said the company continues to post strong earnings, allowing it to consistently declare cash dividends to its shareholders annually.

In the first six months of the year, CHPC reported a net income of $1.7 million, up 21 percent from $1.4 million in the same period in 2010.

Buyawe said the company has a diversified customer base that operates in different industry spaces and in different countries, thereby mitigating the effect of the economic downturn.

He said the company also has a diversified customer base, spread among Europe, US and Asia.

Headed by its chairman and president Jerry Liu, Cirtek provides turnkey solutions that include package design and development, water probing, wafer back grinding, assembly and packaging, final testing of semiconductor devices and delivery and shipment to its customers’ end-users.

CPHC’s vision is to become a leading outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) partner.

OSATs perform the specific task of putting parts together, testing for utilization and packing semiconductor devices before these are released to customers who will, in turn, provide these products to end-applications.

CHPC believes it can achieve its leadership in OSAT through constant innovation and re-engineering, and by focusing on customer-specific products, high reliability devices, and multichip products.