China's Tsinghua Unigroup to Buy Stake in Taiwanese Firm

BEIJING—Chinese state-owned chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. continued its overseas investment spree, striking a deal for a $600 million stake in Taiwan's Powertech Technology Inc.

Tsinghua Unigroup will become the Taiwanese chip packaging and testing company's biggest shareholder, with a 25% stake after a new share issue, the two companies said Friday.

Tsinghua Unigroup's recent deal activity reflects China's ambitions to advance its semiconductor industry through overseas acquisitions and domestic development. The country's chip technology lags considerably behind that of the U.S., but Beijing has declared semiconductors crucial for national security and pledged billions in investment.

Powertech said investment would help it expand its assembly capacity in Taiwan, develop advanced production processes and recruit talent. It would also become Tsinghua Unigroup's major chip assembly and testing partner, the company said.

Powertech's shares rose 3.5% on Friday to 72 New Taiwan dollars, or about US$2.22. The news was released after the close of Taiwan stock exchange trading.

After becoming China's largest chip design company through acquisitions, Tsinghua Unigroup gained attention this year with its attempt to buy U.S. chip maker Micron Technology Inc. for $23 billion, which would have been the largest Chinese overseas takeover had it succeeded.

The Micron talks fell apart due to the dim prospects of U.S. regulatory approval, according to people familiar with the discussions, but Tsinghua Unigroup has made other overseas investments.

At the end of September, an arm of Tsinghua Unigroup said it would pay $3.78 billion for a 15% stake in U.S. disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.

In October, the Chinese company hired Charles Kau, the head of Taiwan memory chip maker Inotera Memories Inc., a joint venture between Micron and Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp.

Tsinghua Unigroup agreed in May to acquire a controlling 51% stake in Hewlett-Packard Co.'s China networking unit for $2.3 billion.

Write to Eva Dou at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2015 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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