Soitec issued 750,000 shares within its PACEO(1)
Bernin, France, May 5th, 2010 - Soitec, the SOI (Silicon-on-insulator) leader, announced the issuance of 750,000 shares with attached Warrants through its PACEO authorized by the Shareholders at the extraordinary general meeting held on November 5, 2007 and signed on June 5, 2008 with Société Générale.
Shares with attached Warrants have been issued at a price of €13.20 and account for 0.87% of the company’s share capital which could be raised up to 1.74% in case of conversion of the Warrants into new Soitec shares upon the exercise of the Warrants.
The issuance has a double aim: carrying on with the implementation of the multi-year Group’s employee savings plan and managers’ incentive plan, in France and abroad, as well as completing Soitec’s cash position with an additional € 9.9 million.
Over the coming weeks, Group’s employees and managers will have the exclusive right to buy the Warrants attached to the new shares, at the value assessed by an independent expert. The Warrants will be exercisable during their 5-year term at a strike price equal to 130% of current share market price. The Warrants and/or the shares issued through the exercise of the Warrants will be transferable from the closing of the subscription period onwards, subject however to the relevant provisions of the Group’s saving plan stipulations, if applicable.
The Company highlights that the maximum dilution related to the implementation of the whole PACEO over the 4-year contract with Société Générale will remain below 10% of the initial share capital, in accordance with the relevant shareholders’ authorisation, and will depend on the actual use of PACEO over the period.
PACEO®
PACEO (Programme d’Augmentation de Capital par Exercice d’Options) is an equity financing solution created and developed by Société Générale. PACEO offers public companies a multi-year additional source of financing that can be combined with multi-year employees’ profit sharing plans. It provides companies with the same economic and financial results as a classical capital increase, while offering them the similar flexibility of a confirmed credit line.
The subscription price for shares at each share issue is close to the current stock price at the relevant moment. The program is activated on the issuer's request only. Société Générale has previously arranged and completed several transactions of this type in France and elsewhere in Europe, covering various industries.
(1) PACEO - Programme d’Augmentation de Capital par Exercice d’Options (Step-up Equity Programme)
About Soitec
The Soitec Group is the world’s leading innovator and provider of the engineered substrate solutions that serve as the foundation for today’s most advanced microelectronic products. The group leverages its proprietary Smart Cut™ technology to engineer new substrate solutions, such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, which became the first high-volume application for this proprietary technology. Since then, SOI has emerged as the material platform of the future, enabling the production of higher performing, faster chips that consume less power.
Today, Soitec produces more than 80 percent of the world’s SOI wafers. Headquartered in Bernin, France, with two high volume fabs on-site, Soitec has offices throughout the United States, Japan and Taiwan, and a new production site in the process of customers’ qualification in Singapore.
Three other divisions, Picogiga International, Tracit Technologies and Concentrix Solar, complete the Soitec Group. Picogiga delivers advanced substrates solutions, including III-V epiwafers and gallium nitride (GaN) wafers, to the compound material world for the manufacture of high-frequency electronics and other optoelectronic devices. Tracit, on the other hand, provides thin-film layer transfer technologies used to manufacture advanced substrates for power ICs and Microsystems, as well as generic circuit transfer technology , Smart Stacking for applications such as image sensors and 3D-integration. In December 2009, Soitec acquired 80% of Concentrix Solar, the leading provider of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar systems for the industrial production of energy. With this acquisition, Soitec is entering the fast-growing solar industry; capturing value through the system level.
Shares of the Soitec Group are listed on Euronext Paris.
For more information, visit www.soitec.com.
Soitec, Smart Cut, Smart Stacking and UNIBOND are trademarks of S.O.I.TEC Silicon On Insulator Technologies.
CONTACTS
Soitec
CFO
Olivier Brice
Tel : +33 4 76 92 93 80
olivier.brice@soitec.fr