Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said it would consider negotiating a “friendly” takeover with its tenacious pursuer Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) in a gesture to soften its stance against an acquisition bid.
Reversing previous rejections, the world’s No. 3 chip tester and packager seems to want to adjust its posture in a practical way, two months after ASE put forward the idea of bringing SPIL under a bigger industrial holding company together with ASE.
“We oppose a hostile takeover. Friendly negotiations can bring about anything,” SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
“SPIL has many options,” Lin said. “Making SPIL a subsidiary of an industrial holding company is just one of option. We have to do more research…. We do not have a timescale.”
Lin said he cannot comment on whether he has met high-ranking officials from ASE, such as company chairman Jason Chang (張虔生), to discuss a merger.
Lin called on the new government to support the coexistence of the two local chip testers and packagers, which would have a positive impact on the firms’ competitiveness.
In March, ASE, the world’s largest chip tester and packager, proposed a new industrial holding company that would hold 100 percent equity interests in ASE and SPIL, with the two companies retaining their legal entities.
The proposal was made after ASE failed to win approval from the Fair Trade Investment Commission to go ahead with its second tender offer to boost its stake in SPIL to 49 percent in the first of its two-stage acquisition of the firm.
The renewed proposal demonstrates ASE’s determination to fully acquire SPIL. ASE increased its holding of SPIL from about 25 percent it obtained via the first tender offer launched in October last year to a 33.28 percent share in March.
Under the planned holding company, ASE and SPIL are to become sibling firms under the same parent organization, a statement issued by ASE said.
In addition, the two companies are to be delisted from the stock exchange, while shares of the proposed holding company are to be listed in their place, the statement said.
ASE said that it also intends to retain all SPIL executives, including chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) and president Tsai Chi-wen (蔡祺文), as well as invite both Lin and Tsai to join the board of the planned holding company.
SPIL shareholders yesterday gave the go-ahead to a management proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.8 per common share, representing about 7.8 percent of dividend yield based on the company’s stock closing price of NT$48.6 in Taipei trading yesterday.
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