Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing company, announced yesterday that its board had approved a tender offer for motherboard maker Universal Scientific Industry Co (USI, 環隆電氣), the company said in a statement.
Along with its two subsidiaries — J&R Holding Ltd and Singapore-based ASE Test Ltd (福雷電子), ASE said it planned to purchase all of the outstanding shares of USI that it doesn’t already own through the cash-and-stock tender offer at NT$21 per share.
That price represented a 6.9 percent premium on USI shares, which ended limit-up at NT$19.65 per share yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. ASE shares closed 1.38 percent lower at NT$28.5.
Currently, ASE and its subsidiaries own 18.2 percent of USI’s common shares, with the Kaohsiung-based chip packager holding a 16.42-percent stake in USI.
In the filing to the stock exchange, ASE said it launched the tender offer in a bid to support further integration of technology within the group and to better utilize company assets. The company will begin the tender offer today and end it on Jan. 6, it said.
Under the terms of the offer, USI’s shareholders will receive 0.34 ASE common shares for each USI common share plus cash, with the amount of the cash derived by NT$21 minus the average trading price of ASE shares prior to the closing date of the offer multiplied by 0.34.
USI also manufactures computer peripherals, network storage items and communications products in addition to computer motherboards.
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