UMC establishes new business development center; to focus on solar, LEDs

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: United Microelectronics Corp., at its 2nd Board of Directors meeting of the 11th term held today, approved the establishment of New Business Development Center and its 100 percent owned subsidiary, UMC New Business Investment Corporation. Wen Yang Chen, senior vice president of UMC, will be responsible for New Business Development Center.

UMC established the center to capitalize in high growth and high profit potential industries through timely strategic investment. This will bring new momentum for UMC to further grow and enhance UMC's future asset turnover and profitability.

Capital for UMC's 100 percent owned subsidiary, UMC New Business Investment Corp., is likely to reach NTD 1.5 billion. The company will invest based on the research and evaluation performed by UMC New Business Development Center. In the future, the company will acquire absolute majority of the investees' shares and aggressively participate in the decision-making process and operation of the invested companies.

Recently, major developed and developing countries have listed energy saving and carbon reduction as primary administrative policies to face the challenge of potential energy shortages in the future. Technologies for renewable energy and energy saving will become the focus for future technology development; the growth of related industries is predictable.

The utilization of solar energy has high development potential in the renewable energy sector, while LED is a focus area for energy saving. UMC's knowledge and technologies are highly applicable to the fundamentals of these two industries; hence UMC New Business Development Center will focus on these two areas by utilizing UMC's existing expertise and technologies.

In the short-to-mid term, UMC plans to complete the development of related technologies and establish a preliminary scale of operations. For the long term, as key proficiencies mature and resource integration is complete, the new energy business is expected to become another UMC core business with high competitive advantages.

Wen Yang Chen, UMC senior vice president, is currently responsible for operations and sales of UMC's 8-inch (including 6-inch) fabs. He will also be responsible for the operation of UMC New Business Development Center, which will allow him to leverage his extensive experiences in the semiconductor industry to conduct evaluations on various investments, and the integration, management and utilization of human resources, technology and capital.

Enhancing UMC's profitability and improving shareholders' equity has always been UMC's goal. UMC will continue to strengthen its foundry industry competitiveness, while also adopting an intelligent capital utilization strategy through this new energy business development to increase capital utilization performance, build momentum for long-term growth, and to create even greater benefits for UMC's shareholders.