TCL and its advisers have been discussing a 25% offer for the Hong Kong-listed company ASM Pacific Technology Ltd., people familiar with the matter said on Friday. According to Friday's closing price, the stake is worth about $1 billion.
According to sources, the deliberation is still in its early stage and it is not certain whether a deal will be reached.
TCL has not yet heard of the takeover, and a spokeswoman for ASMP said she could not immediately comment. A spokesman for ASMI said the company still believed in its strategic value of ASMP equity. He declined to comment on whether ASMI received any information that interested buyers in the holding company.
However, in a subsequent statement, ASMI said that although the company has been in contact with interested parties from time to time, there is no ongoing potential acquisition process for the remaining ASMP holdings of ASMI.
Stimulated by takeover rumors, ASMI rose 6.2% in Amsterdam, its biggest intraday gain since June. TCL rose 1.4% on Friday's closing session in Shenzhen.
ASMI is headquartered in Almel, the Netherlands. Its subsidiaries and participating companies design and manufacture equipment and materials for semiconductor devices. ASMI, its subsidiaries and participating companies provide production solutions for wafer fabrication (front end) and assembly and packaging and surface bonding technology (back end) through facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASMI is listed on the pan European stock exchange of Amsterdam (Stock Code: ASM).
ASMP produces chip assembly and packaging machinery, called back-end equipment, and is the world's largest supplier of integrated and packaging equipment for the semiconductor and light-emitting diode industries. ASMPT was listed in Hongkong in 1989, and 53.1% of its shares were held by ASM International N. V..
Active investor management companies Elliott Management Corp. and Eminence Capital have been pushing ASMI to sell its shares in ASMP, according to people familiar with the matter. In April last year, ASMI sold 5% of its ASMP shares and sold another 9% of its shares in November.
It is noteworthy that some media mistook ASMI for another Dutch company, ASML, which is also the world's leading manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, especially in the field of lithography. But the two have nothing to do with it. According to ASMI's clarification statement, the transaction is still very uncertain.
As one of the leading manufacturers of consumer electronics and household appliances in China, TCL covers everything from smartphones to refrigerators. It is understood that TCL is seeking to transform itself into a global manufacturer with core leading technologies by building and purchasing key equipment components. TCL Chairman Li Dongsheng said last year that he hoped to become the world's largest TV manufacturer in five to 10 years to make advanced OLED screens for the iPhone.
In May this year, TCL announced that it planned to invest a total of 42.683 billion yuan in Guangming New Area, Shenzhen, to build a new production line for the 11th generation of ultra-high definition display devices with a monthly capacity of about 90,000 sheets of 3370 mm 2940 mm glass substrates. It mainly produces and sells 65 ", 70" (21:9), 75 "8K ultra-high definition display screens and 65" OLED, 75 "OLED display screens. Wait. TCL said the move is in line with the development trend of semiconductor display technology, to seize the market opportunities for the rapid growth of large-scale ultra-high-definition display panels.
In July, Li Dongsheng told the media that TCL has set up an investment fund for semiconductor chip integrated circuits. The main investment target is chip design projects. At present, there are two projects, one chip company has been listed, and other companies will be listed in the future.
As for wafer manufacturing, Li Dongsheng admitted that he would not enter the market easily. He said that the investment level of wafer chip manufacturing is hundreds of billions of dollars. We will not invest in this industry because we do not have so many resources. TCL's investment is in the field of chip design. I noticed that some companies said they would invest 50 billion yuan to make chips. I believe that the investment volume is to do chip design. If we really want to make wafers, 50 billion yuan is not enough.
Obviously, ASMP, as the world's leading supplier of packaging equipment and process solutions, serves the semiconductor, optoelectronic and optoelectronic industries, and TCL's acquisition of some of its stakes will greatly boost its panel business.
