BenQ dumps all shares in Airoha in latest cash-raiser

Taiwan's top handset maker BenQ Corp (明基) yesterday said that it sold all of its shares in a handset chip designer unit to Mediatek Inc (聯發科) for NT$606 million (US$18.58 million) in cash.

The deal would be BenQ's latest attempt to fulfill a bigger plan to raise NT$10 billion over the next 12 months by selling non-core investments and fixed assets to repay debt, after it decided not to finance the unprofitable European mobile phone unit that it purchased from Siemens AG in October last year.

BenQ said it sold its 31.55 percent stake, or around 9.7 million shares, in Airoha Technology Corp (絡達科技) at NT$62 per share to Mediatek, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

Mediatek is the world's top maker of chips for DVDs, but has been shifting its focus to handset chip manufacturing in recent years.

BenQ has made NT$1.25 billion from disposing of assets in Taoyuan County and part of its holdings in LCD equipment maker Gallant Precision Machining Co (均豪精密) after it unveiled the fund-raising plan in October to improve its financial situation.

Last week the firm said it would shut its research and development center in Beijing after the closure of a handset plant at home and the sale of the money-losing BenQ Mobile GmbH in Germany, currently in receivership after filing for insolvency.

Shares of BenQ were unchanged at NT$17.2 yesterday, outperforming the 0.07-percent loss on the benchmark TAIEX index. Mediatek shares dropped 0.9 percent to NT$331.