The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday said that it would extend its review of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) planned acquisition of a majority stake in Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) for another 60 days in order as it considers the deal’s impact on the industry and market competition.
ASE is the world’s largest chip packaging and testing service provider, while SPIL is the world’s No. 3 chip tester and packager.
Kaohsiung-based ASE launched a public tender offer for another 24.71 percent stake in Hsinchu-headquartered SPIL in December last year after securing a 25 percent stake of its local rival in September last year.
“Because there are still many unanswered questions regarding the nation’s industry, market structure and competition that needed to be clarified through further deliberation, the commission has decided to extend the review period,” the commission said in a statement.
The commission is scheduled to hold more meetings with related companies, industry representatives and government agencies before reaching a final decision, the statement said.
The commission received ASE’s application to buy a 27.71 percent share in SPIL on Feb. 4. It is expected to make a final decision in early May following the 60-day review extension.
SPIL, which has been resisting ASE’s takeover bid, yesterday welcomed the commission’s decision to extend the review period, saying that ASE’s planned deal is a “hostile takeover” and that if the deal is approved it would not be of an overall economic benefit to the nation.
Separately, SPIL said its board yesterday approved a proposal to distribute cash dividends of NT$3.8 to shareholders, the highest in eight years. The dividend payout was based on the company’s earnings of NT$8.76 billion (US$261.6 million), or NT$2.78 per share, last year, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
With SPIL’s shares closing at NT$48.6 yesterday in Taipei trading, the planned cash dividend represented a dividend yield of 7.81 percent, higher than local banks’ fixed-term deposit interest rates.
The payout plan, as well as a proposal to spend NT$1.13 billion on employee bonuses and a plan to award NT$110 million to board directors, still has to be approved at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on May 16.
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. If it still has not received regulatory approval by that time, then the public tender offer would fail, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a client note yesterday.
The law would also forbid ASE from making another public tender offer on SPIL within a year because of the required one-year blackout period, Yuanta said.
Yuanta said the deal poses no antitrust concerns and should benefit shareholders as a whole, therefore it is not clear why the regulatory authority is so apprehensive about the case.
“In an effort to retain control, SPIL’s management wants the deal to fail. All SPIL needs now is for the FSC to stay quiet until March 17 in order for ASE’s public tender offer to fail,” Yuanta analyst Andrew Chen (陳治宇) said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS