Issuance of 0.214 New Shares per Old Share in Europe
Raising 40 Billion KRW Fully Allocated to R&D Funding
Exicon, a company developing equipment to test semiconductor performance and reliability, has launched a large-scale paid-in capital increase to raise research and development (R&D) funds. With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, demand for high-performance semiconductors is increasing. As semiconductor speeds accelerate and memory capacities grow, the technology for testing equipment is also becoming more sophisticated. Accordingly, testing equipment companies are focusing on R&D to avoid falling behind in the competition.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 26th, Exicon will issue 2,202,000 new shares by allocating 0.214 new shares per existing share. The planned issue price for the new shares is 18,170 KRW, aiming to raise a total of 40 billion KRW.
The largest shareholder, CEO Choi Myung-bae, along with related parties, will acquire 672,216 shares, accounting for 74.12% of the allocated new shares. After the paid-in capital increase, the largest shareholder's stake is expected to decrease by 1.44 percentage points to 37.66%.
All the raised funds will be used for research and development expenses. Investments will be made to develop next-generation memory semiconductor testing equipment and non-memory semiconductor equipment. Exicon is a company that develops testing equipment for the post-process packaging stage, the final step among the eight core semiconductor processes. The company expects AI semiconductors, which were mainly installed in data centers, to be applied to personal devices such as smartphones and laptops. The funds will be used to develop testing equipment capable of responding to new technologies such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and Compute Express Link (CXL).
The Exicon board of directors judged that to sustain growth, it is important to secure a leading position as a major supplier in the AI memory semiconductor tester and non-memory semiconductor tester markets. CXL is a next-generation DRAM module that combines DRAM and CPU, improving performance by reducing data transfer bandwidth and latency between memory and processor. Exicon is developing a CXL 2.0 tester.
As of the end of last year, Exicon recorded a debt ratio of 13.7% and a current ratio of 366.8%, demonstrating a solid financial structure. The company holds 29.6 billion KRW in cash and cash equivalents. Last year, it posted sales of 82.3 billion KRW, operating profit of 1.5 billion KRW, and net profit of 4.9 billion KRW. Due to the semiconductor industry's downturn last year, sales decreased by about 10%, lowering profit margins.
Ordinary R&D expenses have steadily increased from 10.8 billion KRW in 2021 to 12.3 billion KRW in 2022 and 15.6 billion KRW in 2023. This investment is to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology. As the AI industry grows, funds required for technology development inevitably increase. Although this raises entry barriers, failure to invest heavily and develop technology increases the risk of being left behind. Exicon decided to increase capital for the first time in six years since raising funds through a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase in 2018. Under the judgment that failure to quickly develop technology could lead to losing competitiveness, it has embarked on raising R&D funds.
Daishin Securities, the lead underwriter, expects Exicon's testing equipment sales to increase from the second half of this year due to the recovery of the semiconductor industry and the introduction of advanced technologies in the memory semiconductor post-process field.
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