The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission on Friday last week approved a NT$9.35 billion (US$304.40 million) buyout of medical equipment maker Microlife Corp (百略) by an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia.
Microlife in March announced that it had agreed to sell all of its shares to Midas Health Co Ltd at NT$84.74 per share, a 17.85 percent premium over the stock’s 20-day average closing price of NT$71.9.
The company is to be delisted from the local bourse next month, the commission said.
Midas Health is part of a US$1.7 billion closed-end private equity plan under Morgan Stanley.
Founded in 1981 and listed on the over-the-counter Taipei Exchange in 2001, Microlife is among Taiwan’s top contract designers and manufacturers of medical equipment for home use and has never posted an operating loss, while its annual earnings per share have consistently been more than NT$5 over the past five years.
The company’s own-brand products are sold in Europe and North America, and are distributed by major retailers including Walmart Inc.
Microlife vice chairman William Hsu (許盛信) in March said that the company was seeking a buyout to secure the funds it needed to cope with rising uncertainty in global markets.
Market analysts have said that the 17.85 percent premium was lower than expected and indicative of limited growth prospects in the market for digital thermometers and blood pressure monitoring systems.
The commission also approved an application by United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) to purchase the remaining 84.1 percent of Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd for ￥57.63 billion (US$511.55 million) and gain full ownership of the Japanese company, which operates a 12-inch fab in Japan, it said in a statement.
Catcher Technology Co (可成), the nation’s leading supplier of light-metal casings and enclosures for mobile devices, received the commission’s nod to invest US$69.9 million in the China Renewable Energy Fund, a US$300 million fund started by Apple Inc and its suppliers in Asia.
Other Taiwanese suppliers to Apple have also invested in the fund, which aims to develop 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity in China, with Pegatron Corp (和碩) committing US$40 million, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) US$28.2 million and Wistron Corp (緯創) US$26.8 million.
Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際) received the commission’s green light to acquire a 30 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed Natural Beauty Biotechnology Ltd, which markets skincare and aromatherapy products, for HK$540.57 million (US$69.22 million), the commission said.
The commission at the same time approved plans by Coretronic (Suzhou) Co Ltd (揚昕科技) to invest NT$300 million to set up a subsidiary in Taiwan.
The company, established by Taiwanese projector and LCD backlight manufacturer Coretronic Corp (中強光電) in Jiangsu in China’s Jiangsu Province, is looking to mitigate the effects of the US-China trade war by establishing an industrial plastics manufacturing unit in Taiwan, the commission said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has decided to slow down its 3-nanometer chip production as Intel Corp, one of its major customers, plans to push back the launch of its new Meteor Lake tGPU chipsets to the end of next year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. That means Intel has canceled almost all of the 3-nanometer capacity booked for next year, with only a small amount of wafer input remaining for engineering verification, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report. Based on Intel’s original schedule, TSMC was to start producing the new chipsets in
Aptera Motors Inc cofounder Chris Anthony, left, and Formosa AdvEnergy Technology Corp chairwoman Sandy Wang pose for a photograph next to an Aptera three-wheeled solar electric vehicle at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Formosa AdvEnergy yesterday signed an agreement to supply batteries for Aptera Motors’ solar electric vehicles. Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp, another unit of Formosa Plastics Group, will also jointly develop a new generation of lithium iron phosphate batteries with Aptera Motors, the companies said.
INDUSTRY CLUSTER: The company was invited to a groundbreaking ceremony for an industrial park in the city, where officials hope to establish a semiconductor hub Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the construction of a planned 12-inch wafer plant in Kaohsiung would start later this year. The chipmaker’s comments came after the Kaohsiung City Government invited the company to attend a groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday at the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park (楠梓科技產業園區), where the new plant is to be built. The park would sit on the former site of a naphtha cracking plant owned by state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油). Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) yesterday did not confirm whether work on the Nanzih industrial park would begin on Sunday, but said it
‘NO NEED TO WORRY’: The central bank governor said foreign selling on the TAIEX is normal for this time of year and that the nation has ample forex reserves Taiwan would emerge unscathed from China’s retaliatory actions to protest US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, top monetary and financial officials said yesterday. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) shrugged off unease over potential instability in the foreign exchange and stock markets after foreign portfolio funds trimmed their holdings of local shares for two straight days amid Beijing’s threats of retaliation. “There is no need to worry,” Yang said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s (CABEI) Taipei office and the 30th anniversary of
RSS