Kingston wins FTC approval to buy Panram shares

2012-08-23-By Kevin Chen
Memory module maker Kingston Technology Co yesterday obtained regulatory approval from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for its purchase of shares in smaller rival Panram International Corp.

The purchase would enable the Fountain Valley, California-based Kingston to own a 20.84 percent stake in Panram, making it the largest shareholder of the Taiwanese firm, with more than half of the seats on the latter’s board of directors.

The commission said in a statement that the share purchase and the combination of the two companies in terms of DRAM modules, USB drives and flash memory businesses were not expected to hurt domestic market competition.

The approval came after Panram announced on June 26 that Kingston agreed to acquire 11.80 million of its shares at NT$12.46 each via a private placement.

The Neihu -based Panram said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange at the time that the NT$147.03 million (US$4.9 million) sale would allow it to form a long-term strategic alliance with Kingston and help it improve competitiveness and its bottom line.

Established in 1994 with a paid-in capitalization of NT$566 million, Panram posted a net profit of NT$19.153 million, or NT$0.43 per share, in the first quarter of the year.

That was down 63.41 percent from a year earlier and 36.25 percent less than the previous quarter.

Revenue was NT$642.237 million during the first three months, declining 32.61 percent year-on-year and 78.94 percent quarter-on-quarter, company data showed.