Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ) is making the case to Sharp Corp that its rescue proposal for the electronics maker is worth more than an offer from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a sign the government fund is determined to keep fighting for victory in the takeover battle.
The state-backed fund proposed a package of cash, asset sales and support from lenders that it says is worth ¥1 trillion (US$8.5 billion), according to documents INCJ presented to Sharp and obtained by Bloomberg News on Monday.
Hon Hai, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) outside Taiwan, is offering about ¥660 billion for the company, a person familiar with the matter has said.
INCJ’s proposal included a ¥300 billion cash infusion for Sharp as well as ¥350 billion in support from its lenders, according to the documents. The fund also proposed raising ¥150 billion from its stake in Sakai Display Products Corp and ¥200 billion in financing.
“Money matters, but what’s important is the company’s long-term viability,” said Yasuaki Kogure, chief investment officer at SBI Asset Management Co. “Beyond the money amounts, the questions that need answering are about Sharp’s restructuring.”
Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) emerged from a nine-hour meeting with Sharp on Friday last week and said his company has become the preferred bidder, with a final agreement expected by the end of the month.
He said the Taiwanese firm’s negotiations with Sharp are 90 percent complete and there will be no breakup of the company. However, about an hour later, the Osaka-based company contradicted his comments, saying that INCJ’s bid is still in play.
INCJ has not given up on the proposal and is not planning to raise its offer, the fund’s chief executive officer Toshiyuki Shiga said in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper on Monday.
INCJ’s focus is on restructuring and not revival makes its plan fundamentally different from Foxconn’s, Shiga said in the report.
Sharp spokesman Toyodo Uemura declined to comment. Negotiations with Sharp are continuing, a spokesman at INCJ said. Foxconn declined to comment.
The lender support in INCJ’s proposal would include a ¥110 billion debt-for-equity swap, the documents show. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group Inc would also cancel ¥225 billion of preferred stock they hold in Sharp, shares Foxconn is offering to buy, according to INCJ’s plan.
INCJ proposed merging Sharp’s LCD operations with those of Japan Display Inc, where the fund is a major shareholder, according to the documents.
The fund’s offer will reflect fair value of Sharp’s stock, preventing possible shareholder lawsuits and also involve bringing in new management, according to the documents.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained