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The circle of silicon wafer manufacturers could shrink even further in the near future: Taiwanese producer GlobalWafers wants to take over from German competitor Siltronic. Negotiations are well advanced and foresee a purchase price of 125 euros per share, which would represent around 3.75 billion euros.
Major shareholder Wacker Chemie, which owns 30.8 percent of Siltronic, welcomes terms such as the dpa reported. Consequently, the offer is “attractive and adequate”. According to its own information, Siltronic employs around 3,600 people worldwide, more than 2,000 of them in Germany (Munich, Burghausen, Freiberg). Other branches are located in Portland, USA, as well as China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
Authorities have yet to approve the acquisition. In the event of a final agreement, GlobalWafers is committed to keeping all employees until at least 2024.
After taking over second place
Broken down by sales, Siltronic is the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of 200 and 300 mm silicon wafers with a 13 percent market share. TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and Globalfoundries, among others, need the silicon wafers to make CPUs, GPUs, and other chips. GlobalWafers has a 17 percent market share; Together, the companies would rank second behind Shin Etsu (33 percent).
Last year, Siltronic had sales of around 1.27 billion euros, of which 401 million remained as a profit. For 2020, the company forecasts a decline in sales in the mid-single-digit percentage range. GlobalWafers achieved sales of 55.1 billion Taiwan dollars in 2019, the equivalent of 1.64 billion euros (based on the exchange rate as of December 31, 2020). The profit was 22.850 million Taiwanese dollars (681 million euros).
Since the beginning of negotiations, Siltronics’ market value has risen significantly: a share currently costs € 123.50, an increase of more than 50 percent from the beginning of the month.
(mma)
