CIMB leads first major Taiwan deal for Advanced Semiconductor Engineering

Joint bookrunner in $400m convertible bond issue.

In a release, CIMB Group announced that it acted as joint bookrunner for the US$400 million convertible bond issued by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), the world’s largest independent provider of semiconductor packaging and test services.

With a market capitalisation of US$6.2 billion, ASE accounted for 18 per cent global market share in its The issuance is the first convertible bond deal by CIMB in Taiwan and its investment bank’s second in North Asia this year. The zero-coupon, zero-yield issue is scheduled to mature in 2018 with an exercisable put option in the third year. The ASE offering attracted strong demand with books covered within 30 minutes and multiple times oversubscribed.

“We could not have had a better name for CIMB’s first major Taiwan transaction. ASE is a global heavyweight in the technology sector and the positive response to the issue despite market volatility underscores the inherent strength of top Asian corporates,” said Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, Group Chief Executive, CIMB Group.

CIMB Group completed the expansion of its investment banking platform in Asia Pacific in July 2013 with the launch of its investment banking and brokerage business in Taiwan. Ronald Song heads the investment banking business while Jeffrey Toder, Branch Manager and Head of Taiwan Research, leads the 32-strong team in Taiwan, providing institutional broking to domestic and international clientele. CIMB Taiwan initiated coverage of 67 Taiwanese stocks, which account for 60% of the domestic market cap and span 9 sectors with 19 subsectors, such as technology, finance, property, petrochemicals, consumer and building materials.