JSR
said nothing was decided but that its board would discuss the
matter on Monday, after the Nikkei business daily reported JIC
was in talks to buy JSR for about 1 trillion yen ($7 billion).
The fund aims to make a tender offer as early as this year after
clearing the buyout with domestic and foreign antitrust
authorities, the newspaper said. It did not cite a source for
its information.
Japan's government regards microchips as strategic products to
strengthen its economic security, and seeks to bolster supply
chain.
JIC and a spokesperson for Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry, which oversees JIC, declined to comment.
If the deal goes through, JSR would delist from the Tokyo Stock
Exchange as soon as 2024, according to Nikkei.
JSR, set up in 1957 as a government-backed synthetic rubber
maker, now supplies photoresists to global chipmakers. They are
used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers.
Activist investor ValueAct Capital held a 9.25% stake in JSR
according to its latest filing in May 2021, and has an executive
on the board. Ownership changes of more than 1% of a company's
shares require fresh filings.
To purchase JSR, JIC intends to establish a new company with 500
billion yen ($3.5 billion) in capital, while Mizuho Bank, a part
of Mizuho Financial Group, will provide 400 billion yen in
financing, Nikkei said. Mizuho Bank declined to comment.
The fund plans to raise 100 billion yen via preferred shares and
subordinated loans underwritten by various banks, the newspaper
said.
The deal would grant JSR, with its 30% share of the global
photoresist market, greater freedom for expansion, without being
constrained by worries about stock market performance, Nikkei
said.
Japan's industry ministry said in April it aimed to triple sales
of semiconductors made in Japan to 15 trillion yen by 2030.
($1 = 143.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Riya Sharma in Bengaluru and Miho Uranaka, Ritsuko
Shimizu and Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo; Writing by Satoshi
Sugiyama; Editing by Arun Koyyur and William Mallard)
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