Taiwan’s GlobalWafers announced on Monday it is in final talks to buy German peer Siltronic AG for 3.75 billion euros or $4.5 billion, according to NIKKEI Asia. GlobalWafers, the world’s third-largest maker of semiconductor wafers, aims to expand its market share and challenge leading Japanese players.
- The acquisition will help GlobalWafers expand its market share and supply more to European chipmakers such as Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and NXP.
- The GlobalWafers-Siltronic merger will create a leading industry player with a comprehensive and technologically advanced product portfolio for global customers.
- GlobalWafers will launch a voluntary tender offer of 125 euros per share to Siltronic’s shareholders, a 48% premium to the volume-weighted average share price of Siltronic in the last 90 days.
- GlobalWafers and Siltronic aim to sign a “business combination agreement” in the second week of December.
- Siltronic acquisition comes as the semiconductor industry enjoys an electronics demand triggered by continued work-from-home trends due to the pandemic.
- The two companies have consulted legal experts and are hopeful that the deal will clear all the required regulatory reviews.
- GlobalWafers commands a global market share of about 17%, while Siltronic had a share of 13% in the first quarter of 2020
GlobalWafers and Siltronic AG stocks are currently gaining. 6488: TPEX is up 9.84%, WAF: ETR is up 9.56%
