Wingtech awaits UK’s decision on subsidiary Nexperia’s US$72 million deal

Wingtech Technology Co, once a little-known contract manufacturer of smartphones in China, has found itself in the front line of the country’s expansion drive in semiconductors, as the Shanghai-listed company awaits London’s decision over its Dutch subsidiary Nexperia’s takeover of Britain’s biggest chip maker.

The UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on October 3 delayed its announcement of a decision on whether to block or approve the £63 million (US$72 million) acquisition last year of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) by Nexperia, according to a report by British tech news site The Register on Tuesday. The BEIS department said in July that it needed another 45 days to review the deal.

A full assessment of that acquisition was ordered by the UK government in May under the country’s new National Security and Investment Act, which came into force in January.

“The only date formally communicated to us by the ISU [the UK’s Investment Security Unit] remains October 3rd,” Nexperia said on Wednesday. “But there are circumstances in which they can stop the clock, to look at specific issues more closely. Beyond that, we cannot comment further.”

The BEIS department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Despite political roadblocks, the NWF deal marks another strategic move into the global semiconductor supply chain by Chinese engineer-turned-entrepreneur Zhang Xuezheng, the chairman and chief executive of Wingtech.

Zhang was behind Wingtech’s audacious effort to buy Dutch chip maker Nexperia for US$3.6 billion in 2018. He has served as Nexperia’s chief executive since March 2020.

Headquartered in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Nexperia has wafer fabrication facilities in the UK and Germany, as well as device assembly plants in China, the Philippines and Malaysia. The firm has more than 25,000 customers worldwide and manufactures more than 15,000 types of products.

The Nexperia acquisition helped Wingtech develop a full industrial chain layout that now includes semiconductor chip design, wafer manufacturing, assembly and testing.

The NWF acquisition, according to some British lawmakers, will see a rare UK advanced chip manufacturing plant handed over to Beijing, which is engaged in a tech war with Washington that largely involves semiconductors. South China Morning Post