Chartered takes out $190M loan for 300-mm fab

The loan is the third of its kind inked by Chartered in the last eight months.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 1/29/2008

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd has taken out a $190 million loan to purchase equipment from ASML as it ramps its first 300-mm fab.

The Singapore-based foundry inked the loan agreement with Societe Generale. The loan is guaranteed by Atradius Dutch State Business NV. Chartered said the loan will be drawn down in accordance with the ramp schedule of the fab, known as Fab 7, and will be repaid over a period of five years.

The loan is the third of its kind inked by Chartered in the last eight months. In May 2007, Chartered took out a $610 million loan to purchase equipment for Fab 7 from US-based manufactured equipment from Applied Materials, Novellus Systems, LAM Research, Varian Semiconductor Equipment, and KLA-Tencor, among others. More recently in October 2007, Chartered signed an agreement for a $300 million loan from Japan Bank for International and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking to buy Fab 7 equipment from Japan-based vendors.