By Kantaro Komiya and Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Yageo on Thursday raised its tender offer price for Japan’s Shibaura Electronics by 7% to 6,635 yen a share to outbid a rival offer as it awaits national security clearance from the Japanese government.
Yageo’s move further intensifies the takeover battle with Japanese components maker Minebea Mitsumi, which last week matched the Taiwanese component supplier’s previous offer of 6,200 yen.
Yageo, the world’s largest maker of chip resistors, is awaiting the outcome of the security review under Japan’s Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, which has been extended twice.
Shibaura, a major thermistor sensors maker, has now been classified as core to national security, according to a list recently updated by the Japanese finance ministry.
The bidding battle for Shibaura has been seen by investors as a test of Japan’s openness to unsolicited takeovers.
Yageo’s new price values Shibaura at 101 billion yen ($684.5 million), up from 94 billion yen, it said in a regulatory filing. Yageo also extended its offer period to September 4 from August 28.
Minebea CEO Yoshihisa Kainuma said earlier this week that 6,200 yen was “the maximum price that the company can explain rationally.”
He declined to comment when asked about the possibility of Yageo raising the offer price, but said his company could win if the gap is within 200-300 yen.
($1 = 147.5500 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
