TOKYO--Renesas Electronics Corp. (6723.TO) said Monday it will
raise up to ¥200 billion ($2.44 billion) in fresh capital
from a government-backed fund and a group of Japanese
manufacturers.
The struggling chipmaker will issue new shares to the Innovation
Network Corp. of Japan and eight client firms of Renesas including
Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO) and Panasonic Corp. (6752.TO) for Y120
per share.
The INCJ will inject around Y140 billion and take a two-thirds
stake in the chipmaker while Renesas customers will provide a total
of around Y12 billion -- for around a 5% stake in the company.
Renesas said the INCJ is also prepared to provide Y50 billion in
additional investment or loans.
The bid by INCJ and Renesas customers trumped a competing Y100
billion ($1.2 billion) bid from New York-based fund KKR & Co.
(KKR).
Originally established in 2003, Renesas was a product of
successive mergers of the chip units of Hitachi Ltd. (6501.TO),
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503.TO) and NEC Corp. (6701.TO).
Despite a 30% share in the global market for microcontroller chips,
the world's No. 5 chipmaker by revenue has struggled to cope with
falling chip prices and competition from overseas rivals.
Write to Kana Inagaki at kana.inagaki@dowjones.com
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