November 12, 2007 – Following through on promises earlier this year, TSMC says it will buy back the remaining 4.187B of its shares owned by Royal Philips Electronics for ~$1.5B, over the next two years. The sale, representing nearly a 3% stake in the foundry, will reduce Philips’ stake to 5.24%.
Under terms of the deal, TSMC wants Philips to offload the shares through four different avenues, notes the Taiwan Economic News: sell in blocks to preferred recipients, issuing American Deposit Receipts (ADRs), and publicly selling to TSMC and/or certain financial institutions.
The paper notes that following the sale and an expected capitalization reduction, TSMC could return 2%-4% to shareholders. Rival foundry UMC also recently significantly reduced its capitalization.