Shareholders of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), the nation’s two biggest integrated circuit packaging and testing services providers, have approved a merger deal between the two companies.
The companies yesterday held extraordinary meetings for shareholders to vote on the merger proposal, according to which the two firms would establish a holding company and join under a corporate umbrella.
The two firms in May 2016 announced that the holding company would fully own ASE and SPIL, and that the two would remain independent from each other.
Under the deal, ASE is to trade one common share in exchange for half a share in the new company, while SPIL shareholders are to receive NT$51.2 per ASE share.
The new holding company is to be called ASE Industrial Holding Co (日月光投資控股).
Speaking to the press after his company’s shareholders’ meeting, SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) said that the decision by ASE to buy into SPIL’s share price shows that the suitor is impressed by SPIL’s growth into the nation’s second-largest IC packaging and testing firm over the past three decades.
ASE chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) has lofty ambitions and would allow SPIL employees more opportunity to develop, Lin said.
After the merger, ASE and SPIL are to retain their management teams and employees, but would grow together.
The shareholders’ meetings were scheduled after the deal in November last year secured regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, clearing the way for the merger.
The deal was greenlit by the Fair Trade Commission in November 2016 and in May last year by the US Federal Trade Commission.
Meanwhile, the SPIL board has tentatively agreed to delist the company’s shares from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Composite on April 17.
The new holding company is expected to list its shares on April 30.
ASE shares yesterday rose 1.58 percent to NT$38.50 and SPIL shares gained 0.20 percent to NT$50.30 on the local main board.
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