Alphatec Electronics Plc the Bangkok silicon foundry operator is looking for some new funding partners now that Texas Instruments Inc has left it in the lurch. Dallas based Texas Instruments revealed last week that it’s pulling the plug on its multi- million dollar deal with Alphatec because the Thai company has failed to raise sufficient extra finance for its two new fabrication facilities. The deadline for raising the estimated $100m equity was May 2. Under the terms of the deal, Alphatec is now required to buy out Texas Instruments $20m stake in the two joint ventures which were to build a memory manufacturing plant and a chip assembly plant. Alphatec has blamed the difficult economic climate in Thailand which is manifesting itself as a severe lack of demand for technology stocks. The company has called for a more interventionist approach from the Thai government which it believes must step in to prevent a funding crisis, caused by Thailand’s economic slow down. But Thailand’s finance minister has hit back in comments to the Financial Times, They (Alphatec) have to blame someone if they cannot raise funds, but I would argue that it’s not a crisis. He implied that Alphatec alone was responsible for its troubles because it had created financial needs which were too big for Thailand’s markets. Despite the set back, Alphatec still intends to go ahead with the new fabrication facilities but where the external funding will come from is unclear.
