Chartered Semi ups sales growth estimate to 40% from Q1

Chartered Semi ups sales growth estimate to 40% from Q1
By Semiconductor Business News
May 20, 2002 (5:53 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020520S0054

MILPITAS, Calif.-- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. today significantly hiked its forecast for second-quarter revenues to a sequential growth of 40% compared to a previous estimate of a 25% increase from Q1 sales of $84.4 million.

"The acceleration in orders, which we began to see in late March, has continued into the quarter," said Chia Song Hwee, senior vice president and chief financial officer of the Singapore silicon foundry supplier. "We are seeing strength this quarter across a wide number of customers, particularly those in our communications and computer segments."

Including Chartered's share of Silicon Manufacturing Partners (a joint-venture facility known as Fab 5), revenues are expected to surge 45% in the second quarter 2002, compared to previous guidance of 30% from Q1, the company said.

"Having set a target in April to more than double Chartered's revenues between the first and fourth quarter of this year, this added momentum is very encouraging," said the company's chief financial officer. "A key contributor to this growth is sharply higher shipments of 0.18-micron wafers.

"With a growing number of customer engagements, we expect that our 0.18-micron revenues will more than double to well over 20% of total revenues this quarter and will continue to grow significantly throughout the remainder of the year," he added.

Chartered said its loss per American Depositary Share (ADS) is now expected to be $0.76-to-$0.77, compared to prior guidance of a loss of approximately $0.82 to $0.84 per share. That would give the foundry company a net loss of $105 million-to-$107 million compared to previous guidance of $113 million-to-$116 million in the second quarter.

The foundry supplier's wafer fab utilization rate is expected to be in the high 30-percentage range vs. a previous guidance of the mid-30s.