Amkor completes purchase of Anam plants, increases stake in foundry

Amkor completes purchase of Anam plants, increases stake in foundry
By Semiconductor Business News
May 2, 2000 (2:56 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000502S0024

WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- Amkor Technology Inc. today said it has completed the purchase of three semiconductor assembly and testing factories in South Korea from Anam Semiconductor Inc., and it has invested $459 million in Anam's silicon foundry business to help increase production capacity. The entire transaction was valued at $1.4 billion.

Amkor's investment in Anam's silicon foundry unit increases its stake in the wafer-processing operation from 19% to 43%, said Jeffrey Luth, vice president of investor relations in West Chester. The Korean foundry plant, located in Buchon, is now processing about 23,000 eight-inch wafers a month. It will ramp capacity to about 30,000 wafers a month by year's end, Luth said.

Anam Semiconductor entered the silicon foundry business by licensing process technology from Texas Instruments Inc., which initially had the rights to purchase up to 70% of the output for communications and signal processing applications. In addition TI, Anam's foundry business now serves Alcatel Microelectronics, Atmel, Ericsson, NEC, and Toshiba.

Amkor said Anam's 8-inch fab will reach 25,000 wafer per month in the second or third quarter. The additional capacity will be focused on logic devices, fabricated with 0.25- and 0.18-micron technologies.

With the acquisition of Anam's three packaging plants in Korea, Amkor will have seven chip-assembly and testing factories with more than 3.5 million square feet of manufacturing space and an additional 1 million for future expansion. These seven plants packaged 1.4 billion semiconductors in 1999, or about 6% of the world's supply, according to Amkor.

"This transaction solidifies Amkor's position as the world's largest independent provider of semiconductor packaging and test services by assuming direct ownership of all our packaging and test operating assets and enhancing the operating profitability of our core business," said James Kim, chairman and CEO of Amkor, which traces its root s back to Korea's Anam Group.