Infineon Technologies AG said its 30 percent stake in ProMos Technolo-gies Inc (茂德科技), a Taiwanese venture of the world's No. 4 maker of computer-memory chips, was valued at US$400 million, a fifth more than its market price.
Salomon Smith Barney, hired to advise on the sale, presented its evaluation last month at a meeting between Infineon and Mosel Vitelic Inc (
The disclosure puts pressure on Mosel to accept Infineon's demand to gain control of ProMos's production capacity. Infineon, which used about 48 percent of ProMos's capacity, canceled its purchase agreement in October after ProMos declined to give it 100 percent of its production. Infineon may even want to take over the venture, some investors said.
"Threatening to sell shares in ProMos appears to be Infineon's tactic to force Mosel out of ProMos,'" said Cheng Yi-sheng, who helps manage US$11 million at Taiwan Securities Co (
Infineon told Mosel last month it would pull out of the venture it set up with the Taiwan company in 1996 if Mosel did not grant it as much as 70 percent of ProMos's capacity, Mosel Vice president Thomas Chang (
"Mosel had no intention of resolving the dispute," Jurgen Spitzer, a director of mergers and acquisitions at Infineon, told reporters at the meeting.
ProMos shares ended trade on the Taiwan stock exchange at NT$10.85, down 1.8 percent, after rising as much as 5.43 percent earlier. Mosel shares rose 4.4 percent to NT$7.88.
Infineon, which said on Thursday it would replace some of its four directors on ProMos' nine-member board with independent members, gave up one seat yesterday. Among the three Infineon employees ProMos shareholders elected to the board was director Wan Kwong Weng. Mosel vice president Hsing Tuan (段行迪) was also chosen.
ProMos president Chen Min-liang (
At the meeting, shareholders allowed Chen to choose new technology partners for ProMos.
ProMos is one of a handful of companies worldwide making semiconductors from 12-inch-diameter silicon wafers. Infineon transferred technology to ProMos from its German 12-inch factory, the world's first to make the larger wafers that can be cut into more chips at lower cost.
Infineon, which posted its sixth quarterly loss in a row in the three months to September, is trying to expand its 14 percent market share and cut costs by shifting more of its production to Taiwan, where labor costs are lower compared with Europe. In November, Infineon completed plans to build a chip factory with Nanya Technology Corp (
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