NuAxiSemiconductor trade intelligence

Ateco Seeks Kosdaq Listing Through Technology-Based IPO

What happened

Ateco, a back-end memory semiconductor equipment manufacturer, submitted an application for a preliminary Kosdaq listing review to the Korea Exchange on Oct. 28, pursuing a listing under the technology-based special listing program with Mirae Asset Securities and IBK Investment & Securities as lead underwriters; the program allows companies with recognized technological capabilities to go public even if they do not meet certain financial requirements including profitability, and the company plans to use listing proceeds to strengthen its product lineup. Ateco manufactures test handlers for automated memory semiconductor testing, with equipment used for HBM, LPCAMM and SOCAMM2; it began supplying SOCAMM2 test handlers in the first half of this year, its customers include Samsung Electronics and Micron, and SOCAMM2 modules tested using its equipment are used in Nvidia's Vera Rubin AI platform. The company faces financial difficulties: as of the end of last year it had negative equity, with total liabilities of approximately 43.1 billion won substantially exceeding total assets of about 27.5 billion won and total equity at negative 15.6 billion won; the shortfall stems from accumulated operating losses, with last year's revenue of approximately 12 billion won and an operating loss of about 10.9 billion won, revenue declining roughly 33% from approximately 18 billion won a year earlier while the operating loss widened about 24-fold from roughly 450 million won.