In a bid to complete funding for its 4.5G fab, Chunghwa Picture Tubes CPT launched a $100 million convertible yesterday Tuesday via lead manager ABN AMRO. Terms are defensive in a reflection of a difficult market for Taiwanese tech deals and particularly CPT, which is viewed as one of the weakest manufacturers in the flat panel sector because of its continued reliance on increasingly outdated cathode ray tube production.
The lead is said to have gone out with a 0.25% semi-annual coupon and conversion premium of 10% to 15%. The deal has a five-year final maturity with a call option in year two subject to a 125% hurdle and two put options. The...