Taiwan's Yageo (2327.TW) on Thursday raised its tender offer price for Japan's Shibaura Electronics (6957.T) 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 (6479.T), which last week matched the Taiwanese component supplier's previous offer of 6,200 yen.
Minebea Mitsumi, brought in by Shibaura as a white knight to counter Yageo's unsolicited bid, said in a statement late Thursday it would neither raise its offer nor extend the offer deadline past August 28.
The proposed 6,200 yen "is deemed reasonable and the maximum possible price," it said.
Yageo's latest and superior offer effectively makes the outcome of the Japanese government's ongoing national security review for the foreign takeover a key determinant.
The review, under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, has been extended twice, which Minebea said is "extremely unusual" and raises "serious doubts" about the possibility of Yageo's offer being completed.
Yageo, the world's largest maker of chip resistors, said in a separate statement on Friday that Minebea's claim on the review is "based entirely on speculation and completely inaccurate."
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 the previously offered 94 billion yen, it said in a regulatory filing. Yageo also extended its offer period to September 4 from August 28.
Minebea has said 22% of Shibaura shareholders have already agreed to tender their shares to the company. Minebea Chief Executive Yoshihisa Kainuma said earlier this week that his company could win if Yageo's potential hike was within 200 yen to 300 yen.
($1 = 147.5500 yen)
