NEW YORK: Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, the China-backed buyout fund that was barred last week by US President Donald Trump from buying a US chipmaker, said it would purchase British chip designer Imagination Technologies Group.
The all-cash £550 million (SR2.79 billion) deal to buy Imagination showed Canyon Bridge remained focused on investing in Western chipmakers after its $1.3 billion deal to buy Lattice Semiconductor in the US was blocked over US natural security concerns.
Canyon Bridge said on Friday it had agreed to pay 182 British pence per Imagination share, a near 42 percent premium to Imagination’s closing price on Friday. But the purchase is contingent on Imagination divesting US chip designer MIPS, which Imagination had bought in 2013, the two companies said in a joint London stock exchange filing, adding that the takeover would not result in job cuts.
Keeping MIPS would subject Canyon Bridge’s purchase of Imagination to a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), the government panel which rejected its acquisition of Lattice.
Imagination said it had agreed to sell MIPS for $65 million to Tallwood Venture Capital, an investment firm with offices in Palo Alto, California, and Wuxi, southern China. It was not immediately clear whether the divestment would be subject to a CFIUS review.
Canyon Bridge was founded with capital originating from China’s central government and had indirect links to Beijing’s space program. It currently manages about $1.5 billion on behalf of Yitai Capital, a Chinese state-owned company, according to Friday’s statement.
Imagination, whose graphics power Apple’s iPhone, licenses graphics and video-processing technology to semiconductor companies.
China-backed fund shunned by Trump to buy British chipmaker
China-backed fund shunned by Trump to buy British chipmaker
