The Fair Trade Commission is to make a ruling on Advanced Semiconductor Engineering’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) takeover bid of rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) on Wednesday next week at the earliest, the commission said in a statement yesterday.
SPIL has been resisting ASE’s takeover bid, saying that the merger would do more harm than good to Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain.
“The merger would undermine the competitiveness of Taiwan’s chip testers and packagers,” SPIL said.
“Order losses due to the merger are to reach between NT$30 billion and NT$45 billion [US$895.9 million and US$1.34 billion]” because customers tend to have a second source, it said.
The merger would also trigger an exodus of local semiconductor raw material suppliers because fewer orders would come from Taiwan, SPIL said.
SPIL’s local partners and clients, such as United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), oppose the deal because they are worried about losing bargaining power, SPIL said.
They said that they would seek a second testing and packaging service provider if the deal was given the go-ahead, SPIL said.
SPIL made the remarks during a forum held by the Fair Trade Commission to weigh the pros and cons of ASE’s proposal to acquire SPIL.
SPIL and ASE held a more than 60 percent share of Taiwan’s chip testing and packaging market in 2014 by revenue, SPIL said, citing figures from local researcher Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院).
During yesterday’s forum, participants took into account a total of 7,077 opinions submitted by the public, the commission said.
“Nearly all of the necessary procedures determining the deal’s approval have been completed,” Fair Trade Commission Vice Chairman and spokesperson Chiu Yung-ho (邱永和) said.
The commission has 30 days to review the deal since the proposal was submitted on Feb. 4.
The review can be extended to 60 days at the maximum, if needed, the commission said.
Due to the longer-than-expected review by the commission, ASE has extended the deadline of its acquisition bid by one month to March 17.
ASE, the world’s largest chip packager and tester, in December last year launched a second tender offer to purchase an additional 24.71 percent in SPIL in the first leg of ASE’s two-stage plan to fully own SPIL.
The latest stake purchase would bring ASE’s holding of SPIL to 49.71 percent, from 24.99 percent.
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