GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) for a second day in a row increased its bid for Siltronic AG’s outstanding ordinary shares to 145 euros per share on Saturday, up from the 140 euros per share it offered a day earlier, as the company aims to complete the acquisition smoothly.
Saturday’s offer represents the “best and final offer consideration” for the German silicon wafer supplier, GlobalWafers said in a statement.
“We are confident that this transaction will create significant shareholder value and meaningful benefits to our customers, employees and other stakeholders,” GlobalWafers chairwoman and chief executive officer Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said.
Photo: CNA
Hsu said that 145 euros per share are “a very fair price to all Siltronic shareholders.”
“We therefore strongly encourage Siltronic shareholders to tender their shares,” she added.
All other terms and conditions of the takeover bid remain unchanged from the previous offer, GlobalWafers said, adding that the acceptance deadline for Siltronic shareholders would be at midnight on Wednesday.
Siltronic’s executive board welcomed the increased offer, calling it “attractive” in a statement on the firm’s Web site on Saturday.
Siltronic said that the new offer represented a 16 percent increase compared with the initial bid of 125 euros per share and a premium of 52 percent over the volume-weighted Xetra share price during the three months prior to the initial offer on Dec. 8 last year.
GlobalWafers and its subsidiaries hold a 6.06 percent stake in Siltronic.
The Hsinchu-based company reiterated that Wacker Chemie AG, Siltronic’s major shareholder, had confirmed that it would sell GlobalWafers its 30.8 percent stake.
GlobalWafers targets to wholly acquire the Munich-based company, which has operations in Europe, Asia and the US.
GlobalWafers has said that it aims to complete the transaction in the second half of this year.
The takeover, which would require antitrust approval in several countries, would help expand GlobalWafers client base, enhance its product portfolio, expand the scale of business and create more industry dynamics, the company said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained