On October 26, according to Bloomberg News, the Chinese company Wingtech is planning to acquire 55.8 billion shares of Dutch chip manufacturer Nexperia for 25.2 billion yuan (about $3.6 billion).
NXP sold its holdings of Nexperia to a consortium of Chinese investors in 2016. Wingtech has integrated control of the Dutch chipmaker in the name of a company that will assemble equipment for Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi smartphone brands.
The acquisition of Nexperia requires approval from the US Foreign Investment Commission (CFIUS), which has recently blocked several high-profile transactions.
Wingtech Technology claims to be one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers, but its reputation in the technology industry is not great. The company was founded in 2006 by Zhang Xuezheng, a former ZTE engineer and later an executive. Like the iPhone-assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., this company is also manufacturing equipment for other brands, such as Xiaomi’s low-end smartphone series of Redmi.
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But now, the company is trying to enhance its technical strength in semiconductors, including chip design, manufacturing and packaging. The company also said it will establish R&D centers in Shenzhen, Xi’an, and Shanghai.
Wingtech has not fully described its own source of funding for the acquisition of Nexperia, which supplies components such as diodes and logic packages to automotive and industrial customers. The company said on Tuesday that it would issue up to 127.45 million shares to raise 4.63 billion yuan ($0.37 billion) – but this is a small fraction of the initial cost.
In April, the company simply disclosed the transaction, and the stock was suspended. The market value of the company was 19.4 billion yuan ($2.79 billion). Wingtech once said that the company’s revenue in 2017 reached 16.6 billion yuan ($2.39 billion).
