Ritek Corp. today announced that the company has issued 5-year ECB (Europe Convertible Bonds) worth a total of US$175 million. The bonds have 3-year put options, thereby making Ritek the first Taiwanese company in recent years to successfully complete this type of issue. The company plans to use the funds to expand its DVD-R, opto-electronics and prerecorded DVD operations.

While Ritek's CD-R media share is estimated to exceed 40% of the world market, the company is aiming to exploit the rapidly growing demand for DVD-recordables. Said Gordon Yeh, Ritek's CEO and chairman, ``DVDs that can record seven times as much as a CD will be the next wave in optical media and Ritek plans to be a major player.''

London-based Understanding and Solutions estimates that the worldwide market for DVD rewriteable discs will exceed 200 million discs by 2005, up from last year's 2.6 million. DVD write once media is estimated to hit 1.6 billion by 2005, an increase from 19 million in 2001.

``We are certain that consumers will have a huge appetite for discs that permanently store their personal videocassetes,'' said Yeh.

Recently Ritek subsidiary Ritek Global Media entered into a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment to be Fox's exclusive DVD manufacturer in its international territories, Ritek Global Media CEO Rick Marquardt, said, ``The bond issue will accelerate Ritek's expansion into the booming home video DVD market.''

According to figures compiled on behalf of the DVD Entertainment Group, 138 million DVD movies and music video titles shipped in the fourth quarter of 2001, more than an 80% increase over the same quarter in the previous year.