Chip deals will set tone for Taiwan-China ties

Powertech Technology

20/05/2016 04:28

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions 
expressed are her own.) 
    By Robyn Mak 
    HONG KONG, May 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - New president 
Tsai Ing-wen will soon decide whether to approve investments 
worth almost $1 bln by a Beijing-backed group. China's push into 
semiconductors is a challenge for Taiwan's tech-dependent 
economy. The outcome of the stalled deals will shape broader 
economic relations. 
            
    Full view will be published shortly. 
     
    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's first woman president, was 
inaugurated on May 20. Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 
won parliamentary and presidential elections by a landslide in 
January, helped by a voter backlash against the island's 
creeping dependence on mainland China. 
    - Taiwan's Investment Commission, which reviews major 
inbound and outbound deals, told Reuters on May 17 that it had 
begun reviewing proposals from Tsinghua Unigroup, a Chinese 
state-backed company, to buy stakes worth nearly $1 billion in 
ChipMos and Powertech, two Taiwanese semiconductor companies. 
    - In December, Tsinghua Unigroup announced plans to acquire 
roughly 25 percent stakes in three Taiwanese chip companies. In 
April one of those companies, Siliconware Precision Industries, 
said it and Tsinghua Unigroup had mutually agreed to terminate 
their alliance. 
    - During the election campaign, Tsai had called Unigroup's 
investment plans a large threat to Taiwan's semiconductor 
industry. 
    - Reuters: Tsinghua's $2.6 bln Taiwan deals to face 
unprecedented government scrutiny  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N15I530 
     
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    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can 
click on  MAK/    
 
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 (On Twitter https://twitter.com/mak_robyn Editing by Peter Thal 
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Keywords: TSINGHUA UNIGROUP TAIWAN/M&A BREAKINGVIEWS