JSR, the Tokyo-based company that controls a critical link in the global semiconductor supply chain, will use a $6.4bn government-backed take-private deal to strengthen Japan’s arsenal in the US-China chip wars.
The company last week accepted a surprise buyout offer from JIC — a fund overseen by Japan’s powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and whose choice of buyout candidate is seen by three investors who spoke to the FT as primarily motivated by geopolitics.
JSR’s American-born chief executive Eric Johnson told the Financial Times that the deal was not a de facto nationalisation and that while the capital behind JIC came from the government, there was a separation.
Read the full story on the Financial Times here.