Yageo well above threshold of tender offer to acquire Japan firm

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) Taiwan's Yageo Corp., the world's third-largest maker of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), said on Friday that a tender offer it launched to acquire Japan-based Shibaura Electronics Co. has stood well above a threshold of 50.01 percent of the Japanese firm's shares, paving the way for a 100 percent purchase.

In a statement, Yageo said since the tender offer kicked off in May, the company had acquired an 87 percent stake in Shibaura as of 2 p.m. Friday, Japanese time, well above the threshold of a 50.01 percent stake in the Japanese company or about 7.62 million shares.

Yageo said this represented a new milestone for the company's target to bring Shibaura completely under its corporate umbrella and also demonstrated the suitor's long-term investment commitment to the Japanese market and its ambitions to extend its reach globally.

Previously, Yageo set Friday as the deadline of the tender offer. On Friday, the Taiwanese company announced to extend the deadline to Oct. 20, saying the acquisition of Shibaura is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

On May 9, Yageo launched a tender offer to acquire Shibaura at 6,200 Japanese yen (US$42.06) per share -- a 14.8 percent increase from its previous offer of 5,400 yen. That move came after Japanese rival bidder MinebeaMitsumi Inc. raised its bid to 5,500 yen from 4,500 yen.

With MinebeaMitsumi continuing to raise its bid, Yageo, which has described Shibaura as a "globally recognized" maker of negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistors, followed suit, boosting its offer to 6,635 yen on Aug. 21 and to the latest 7,130 yen on Aug. 23.

Yageo has also repeatedly extended the deadline for the tender offer, saying the extensions aimed largely to comply with Japanese regulatory requirements.

On Sept. 16, Shibaura issued a statement to endorse Yageo's tender offer before the Taiwanese suitor secured foreign direct investment (FDI) clearance from Japanese authorities on Sept. 2 for its tender offer to acquire Shibaura.

Founded in 1977, Yageo has pursued growth through acquisitions in recent years, focusing on high-end passive component development.

Among its past deals, Yageo bought the U.S.-based Pulse Electronics Corp. for NT$22 billion (US$723 million) in 2018, cementing its MLCC status, and acquired American counterpart Kemet Corp. for US$1.64 billion in 2020.

In 2023, Yageo acquired Schneider Electric's French-based Telemecanique Sensors in an all-cash deal worth 686 million euros (US$803 million) to strengthen its specialty electronics component business.