2026년 2월 19일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) is moving with urgency to monetize its remaining stake in Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK), targeting roughly $3.09 billion from a secondary offering of the flash-memory business it spun off nearly a year ago. According to people familiar with the matter, the shares are being marketed at $535 to $555 each, representing a discount of as much as 9.4% to Sandisk's $590.59 close on Tuesday. Sandisk previously registered 7.51 million shares for Western Digital effectively its entire remaining position in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The timing is not incidental: Western Digital needs to exit the stake within a year of the Feb. 24 separation to potentially avoid a tax hit, adding a structural deadline to the transaction.
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Investor appetite appears firm. The deal is said to be well oversubscribed following a confidential marketing process, even as Sandisk shares declined about 3% to $574.10 in after-hours trading Tuesday. Western Digital shares were nearly flat at $283.33. The mechanics of the offering suggest Western Digital will exchange the Sandisk shares for debt held by affiliates of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC), with those banks then selling the shares to the underwriters they represent. JPMorgan and Bank of America are leading the transaction, positioning the sale as a coordinated balance-sheet maneuver rather than a simple open-market disposal.
The broader setup could help explain the depth of demand. Sandisk has been riding a global shortage of memory chips, driven in part by the artificial intelligence spending boom, with growing demand for its flash-storage products used in computers and mobile phones. The company has been the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, advancing 149% through Tuesday's close. With sales growth expected to accelerate this year, the offering may test how much incremental supply the market can absorb, even at a measured discount, while Western Digital moves to complete its post-spinoff separation.
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