Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing closed its eight-for-ten rights offering. The company expects to issue a total of 1.1bn new ordinary shares. As expected, gross proceeds from the offering were SGD1.11mn, translating to approximately $620mn.

As of the close of the offering, a total of 716.4mn
new ordinary shares - representing 64.6% of the total offering - were
subscribed for. Included in the above are subscriptions by Singapore
Technologies and Singapore Technologies Semiconductors, Chartered's two
largest shareholders. The firms took up 671.3mn new ordinary shares - about
60.5% of the total. Merrill Lynch (Singapore) will purchase some 393.2mn
unsubscribed new ordinary shares - 35.4% of the total.

The Philips Delft Design Center opened in the Netherlands as a cooperative
venture with the Delft University of Technology. At its opening, the Philips
Design Center will have three permanent Philips employees dedicated to
design work in support of standard analogue IC developments. These designers
will work alongside three professors, two PhD students and two MSc students
from the Delft University of Technology. The expectation is to eventually
house 30 full-time employees in the centre within the next three to five
years.

Financial services company Comerica's Technology and Life Sciences Division
has provided Asyst Technologies with a $25mn line of credit.