Japan Investment Corp in $7 bln deal talks with chipmaker JSR -Nikkei (updated)

JSR

24/06/2023 04:12

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       June 24 (Reuters) - State-backed Japan Investment Corp
is in talks to buy the country's top chipmaker, JSR Corp
 4185.T , for about 1 trillion yen ($7 billion), the Nikkei
business daily reported on Saturday.
    The fund aims to make a tender offer as early as this year
after clearing the buyout with domestic and foreign antitrust
authorities, the report said. The newspaper did not cite a
source for its information.
    The deal would have major implications for Japan's
semiconductor strategy as the government regards microchips as
strategic products to strengthen its economic security, and
seeks to bolster supply chain. 
    If the deal goes through, JSR would delist from the Tokyo
Stock Exchange as soon as 2024, according to Nikkei. 
    JIC and JSR could not be immediately reached for comment
outside business hours. A spokesperson for Japan's Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry, which oversees JIC, declined to
comment.  
    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. 
    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  8411.T , 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)
 ((Riya.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))