News & Events

Simpson Thacher recently represented Credit Suisse in $207.2 million concurrent offerings by United Microelectronics Corporation (“UMC”) of two zero coupon exchangeable bonds due 2014. The two exchangeable bond offerings consist of $127.2 million bonds exchangeable into common shares of Unimicron Technology Corporation (“Unimicron”) and $80 million bonds exchangeable into common shares of Novatek Microelectronics Corp., Ltd. (“Novatek”). The exchangeable bonds carry a negative 0.5% annual yield.

This transaction was reported to be the first convertible/exchangeable bond offering that was offered at a negative yield by a Taiwan-based issuer since 2005. In addition, this transaction was also reported to be the first convertible bond offering by a Taiwan-based issuer since 2008.

UMC is one of the world’s largest independent semiconductor foundries and a leader in semiconductor manufacturing process technologies. Unimicron manufactures and sells a variety of printed circuit boards, primarily for use in communication, computer and consumer electronics products. Novatek is a fabless consumer integrated circuit (“IC”) company designing, developing, contracting to manufacture and selling various types of ICs used in consumer products. UMC is dual listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Taiwan Stock Exchange, whereas Unimicron and Novatek are listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The Simpson Thacher team for this transaction included Chris Lin, Asher Hsu and Townshine Wu.