GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) is close to clearing an important regulatory hurdle in its US$5.3 billion acquisition of German silicon wafer manufacturer Siltronic AG, people familiar with the matter said.
The Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has said that it is largely comfortable with the antitrust remedies proposed by the companies and could make a formal decision shortly, the people said, asking not to be identified as they were discussing confidential information.
The deal still requires approval from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and those discussions are ongoing, the people said.
Photo: CNA
GlobalWafers shares were up as much as 7.6 percent in Taipei yesterday, while Siltronic rose 1.1 percent in Frankfurt on Tuesday, giving it a market value of about US$4.7 billion.
“We are still waiting for the final approval in China, but all questions have been answered,” GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on Tuesday.
The German government might be concerned that GlobalWafers is headquartered in Taiwan, rather than in Europe, she added.
A representative for Siltronic declined to comment, while a SAMR spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular business hours.
A representative for the German economy ministry had no immediate comment.
GlobalWafers and Siltronic announced their tie-up in December 2020.
The companies said in October last year that they were in protracted discussions over regulatory clearances in China and Germany.
The takeover would be GlobalWafers’ largest ever and also one of the chip industry’s biggest in the past few years.
Competition in the market for semiconductors is heating up as companies that were once customers such as Apple Inc, are designing their own chips and established players such as Nvidia Corp branch out into new areas.
Headquartered in Munich, Siltronic is a leading maker of silicon wafers used in products such as smartphones, computers, navigation and digital displays.
It has production sites and offices in Germany, the US and other advanced manufacturing countries.
Nomura Holdings Inc advised GlobalWafers on the deal, while Credit Suisse Group AG worked with Siltronic.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS