Sharp Corp has agreed to sell three of its overseas factories to Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) for about ¥55 billion (US$667 million), Sankei newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
The television assembly plants are located in Mexico, Malaysia and Nanjing, China, and sale procedures will start as early as this month, Sankei reported.
Sharp said last month there was “material doubt” about its ability to survive after forecasting a record ¥450 billion, full-year loss on falling demand for its display panels.
Sharp, the maker of Aquos televisions, is selling assets and seeking investment as it cuts salaries and jobs, and offers voluntary retirements as a part of a turnaround plan.
In July, Sharp sold a stake in an LCD factory in Sakai, central Japan, to Foxconn, who will jointly operate the 10th-generation facility, the industry’s most advanced.
Sharp’s talks with Foxconn over a capital tie-up may continue beyond a March deadline, Sharp said last month. Earlier this year, the two reached a preliminary agreement on Foxconn buying a 9.9 percent stake in the Japanese electronics maker for ¥550 a share, or ¥67 billion.
SHARES PLUMMET
Negotiations on a final price have yet to be completed as Sharp’s market value declined almost 75 percent this year, to close yesterday at ¥172 per share.
Sharp president Takashi Okuda said on Nov. 1 that the company is considering various partnership options. Kyodo News said on Nov. 13 that Sharp was in final talks with Intel Corp to receive an investment of as much as ¥40 billion, while the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday that the company is in talks with Dell Inc to arrange a capital investment of US$240 million.
Sharp hemorrhaged ¥103 billion in cash from operations in the first half of the year. The company may turn to the Japanese government for a bailout, analysts said last month.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
EXPANDING: The European Commission has contributed 5 billion euros in state aid to TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it has received a total of NT$62.5 billion (US$1.95 billion) in subsidies from China and Japan since 2022. In the first half of this year, TSMC received NT$7.96 billion in subsidies from China and Japan after receiving about NT$47.55 billion last year and obtaining NT$7.05 billion in 2022, financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed. The company, which makes about 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors, said the subsidies were used to finance its investments in Kumamoto, Japan, and Nanjing, China. TSMC owns a 12-inch wafer fab in
STRATEGIC SHIFT: Diversifying away from the volatile flat-panel industry, AUO aims to boost sales contribution from non-panel business to half of total revenue by 2027 AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it has agreed to sell its idled manufacturing facility and land in Tainan to Micron Technology Inc for NT$7.4 billion (US$231.8 million) as the company shifts strategy to reduce the impact from the boom-and-bust flat-panel display industry. The company expects to book NT$4.17 billion in disposal gains from the sale, it said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The Tainan factory produced color filters used in monitors, notebook computers and flat-panel TVs before being shut down last year, as AUO sought to optimize its asset utilization. The company has been striving to diversify and broaden its business
Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron