China’s largest smartphone assembler Wingtech Technology announced that it has completed its acquisition of the U.K.’s largest chip plant. This is a part of the move from the assembler aimed at securing new sources of semiconductors amid a global supply crunch.
The company announced that it had received notification last week from Companies House, the U.K. registrar of companies, that ownership of Wales-based Newport Wafer Fab has been transferred to Wingtech subsidiary Nexperia.
“The transfer of the ownership has been completed, and Wintech now indirectly owns the target company [Newport Wafer Fab] 100%.”
The company bought a chip plant at Newport, and the U.Ks chip plant makes automotive-related chips, from Neptune 6 through Nexperia. The amount of the acquisition is completely undisclosed as of now and may be released in the coming days.
China’s smartphone assembler announced its acquisition despite facing several backlashes fraised in the U.K. over the national security implications of the deal. However, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had asked his national security adviser to review the deal, while Tom Tugendhat, chair of the foreign affairs select committee, has stated that this acquisition will be reviewed under the National Security and Investment Act.
This sudden announcement from Wingtech is still shocking news as many other more prominent deals are still awaiting Chinese and U.K. regulatory approval. This also included Nvidia’s record $40 billion bid last year to buy SoftBank-controlled chip designer Arm based in the U.K. the deal of NVIDIA and Arm is yet to be approved and has not yet received the nod from Chinese authorities.
Acquisition of the Newport chip plant should help Wingtech secure more automotive chips, which are in short supply for the past several months. This acquisition is a very important aspect for the Chinese economy as the country’s largest contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. remains blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Wingtech, founded in 2006 by Zhang Xuezheng, a former STMicroelectronics engineer, is the largest Chinese smartphone assembler. It counts Xiaomi, Oppo and Samsung among its clients. The company has aggressively expanded its footprint in the electronics supply chain from chips to other key components in recent years.
