SMIC Surges After Settlement, CEO Change

SHANGHAI (TheStreet) -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMI Quote) shares surged Wednesday on above-average volume after the company settled a lawsuit and announced the departure and replacement of its CEO.

SMIC said it has settled a lawsuit against it by Taiwan chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM Quote), which could allow TSMC to take a 10% stake in SMIC through a grant of 1.79 billion shares and a warrants for 695 million more shares.

In addition, Dr. Richard Chang resigned from SMIC to pursue other personal interests. Dr. David N.K. Wang will take over immediately as executive director of the board and the president and CEO of the chipmaker.

Shares of SMIC were jumping by $1.49, or 61.6%, to $3.91. Earlier in the session, the stock touched a new 52-week high of $4. More than 2.1 million shares changed hands by 10 a.m. EDT Wednesday, compared to the stock's three-month average daily volume of 94,000, according to Yahoo! Finance.

SMIC has a 326.2 million-share float with 1.38 million shares short as of Oct. 12, according to Yahoo! Finance.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York.

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