Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify.
Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
However, one potential spanner in the works is Foxconn, which separately is said to have approached Nissan about acquiring a stake.
Photo: Annabelle Chih, Bloomberg
Foxconn has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles (EV) and Nissan, which has slashed its earnings forecasts and is culling 9,000 jobs globally, needs a financial rescue.
CNA said that Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, told Nissan about Foxconn’s interest in buying its shares, but Nissan did not respond in a favorable manner.
As a result, Seki has started to engage Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder, Renault.
Seki and his team are currently in talks with Renault in France, the report said.
Renault’s stake in Nissan is a holdover from a longstanding alliance between the French automaker, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
Meanwhile, Honda has threatened to end its strategic software partnership with Nissan if it looks to join hands with Foxconn, Nikkei said in an earlier report.
Should the approach from Foxconn turn hostile after a rebuff, Honda also offered to protect Nissan as a white knight investor, Nikkei said.
Official talks, including about a possible merger, between the two Japanese companies might start as soon as Monday, Nikkei added.
Honda’s shares fell more than 2.5 percent in early trading yesterday, while Nissan’s stock was trading down 6.5 percent after jumping a record 24 percent on Wednesday.
Honda is weighing several options, which include a merger, a capital tie-up and even the formation of a holding company, Honda executive vice president Shinji Aoyama said.
The alliance could also include Mitsubishi Motors, he added.
Representatives for Honda and Nissan did not immediately reply to a requests for comment regarding the start date for talks.
A merger of the Japanese car brands would create a bulwark against the Toyota group at home, and allow Honda and Nissan to pool resources to compete with Tesla Inc and Chinese automakers such as BYD Co in global markets.
“It’s only natural for the consolidation of major carmakers to become more common as the industry undergoes a shift toward vehicles with sophisticated technology,” Subaru Corp chief executive officer Atsushi Osaki said during a group interview in Tokyo on Wednesday.
“We need to join hands to take on challenges too difficult to overcome alone,” he added.
Renault has indicated it is open to the idea of a merger between Honda and Nissan, people familiar with the situation said.
Its approval would be key to any deal.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS