Hanmi Semiconductor to retire $90 mn treasury shares in May

Hanmi Semiconductor Co. on Thursday announced a plan to retire 130.0 billion won ($90 million) worth of treasury shares in May, marking its largest-ever share cancellation.

The South Korean chip packaging machine maker said the capital reduction is aimed at shoring up its share price and reflects its confidence about its growth potential amid growing demand for AI chips.

The shares to be canceled are equivalent to 1.35% of its outstanding shares and part of the 200 billion won it bought back in 2024. It has already retired 57.3 billion won worth of treasury shares following the buyback.

In total, it will be canceling 94% of the treasury shares it repurchased last year.

KEY CHIP PACKAGING DEVICE SUPPLIER

Hanmi Semiconductor is the world’s largest TC bonder maker. A TC bonder is a machine used to bond and stack semiconductor chips onto wafers, applying heat and pressure. It plays a pivotal role in the production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), commonly known as AI chips.

It claims about 320 chipmakers, including SK Hynix Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Nvidia Corp., as customers.

Its share cancellation comes as Kwak Dong Shin, chief executive of Hanmi Semiconductor, is set to buy back an additional 2 billion won worth of shares, according to the company’s regulatory filing on Monday.

Including the new repurchase, Kwak will have bought back a total of 39.3 billion won worth of treasury shares since 2023.

For 2024, it will pay a total of 68.3 billion won in dividends, or 720 won per share – its largest-ever annual dividend payout. That compares with the dividend payment of 40.5 billion won in 2023, or 420 won per share.

In the fourth quarter of last year, its operating profit almost quadrupled to 71.9 billion won compared to the year prior, but declined 27.6% from three months before.

For all of 2024, the operating profit soared more than sevenfold to 255.4 billion won, versus the same period in 2023.

Its sales more than trebled to 558.9 billion won last year, but fell short of its 650 billion won forecast.

Last month, Hanmi Semiconductor broke ground on its seventh TC bonder manufacturing plant tailored for HBM. The plant is located in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Write to Eui-Myung Park at uimyung@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.