Adaptive Plasma Technology Corporation (APTC), a Korean developer of silicon wafer etching equipment, will go public on the Kosdaq market on August 23.

APTC’s initial public offering price is expected to be set between 11,500 and 13,000 won, and its initial market capitalization is estimated at 320 billion won.

Etching accounts for one third of the fabrication process to turn out chips. Higher-density integration requires more etching, leading to more demand high-performance etching equipment.

APTC has grown fast since its inception in 2002 along with surging demand for advanced microchips to handle a bigger amount data and programs in a given time.

Sales snowballed from 4.4 billion won ($3.88 million) in 2015 to 37.9 billion won in 2016 and to 41.1 billion won in 2017. It already achieved 41 billion won in sales over the first six months this year.

APTC is the country’s only developer that successfully localized the semiconductor etching equipment. Most of sales come from 300㎜ poly-etching equipment, but it faces a challenge to diversify its sales leads as it wholly relies on SK Hynix for growth.

By Chung Hee-young and Minu Kim

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