BenQ Corp (
Debt-ridden BenQ has become a buyout target as the company's shares have fallen due to heavy losses in the wake of the purchase of Siemens AG's unprofitable handset unit in October last year.
Shares of BenQ were down 0.84 percent to NT$17.8 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX's 1.25 percent gain. The stock is trading at a historical low, or 0.8 of its price-to-book ratio.
Buyers could gain a controlling stake in the world's third-largest flat-panel maker AU Optronics Corp (
"We will not welcome, nor accept any hostile takeover bid," said Hank Horng (
Yu's comments came as Chinese-language newspaper reports said that Hon Hai, which owns the nation's biggest electronics component maker, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
"We are well-prepared [to evade any hostile takeover attempt]," Horng added.
BenQ chairman Lee Kun-yao (
The five-year-old handset maker said it has NT$9 billion (US$277 million) in cash on hand in spite of heavy losses over the past years.
To further improve its financial situation, BenQ told investors that it planned to raise NT$10 billion over the next 12 months by selling non-core investments and fixed assets to repay debt.
The company said in late September that it would stop pouring funds into the money-losing German unit, BenQ Mobile, which it took over from Siemens. BenQ Mobile is under receivership in Germany after filing for insolvency.
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