Business Secretary Rees-Mogg ‘to reverse’ Newport Wafer Fab buyout

Jacob Rees-Mogg could undo a controversial China-backed takeover of a British chip company as he grapples with wider concerns about the industry’s eroding.

The government plans to order Dutch company Nexperia, owned by China’s Wingtech, to significantly reduce its stake in Newport Wafer Fab, the Financial Times reported.

A decision from the Business Secretary is scheduled for Oct. 3, and the former owner of the South Wales firm is said to be orchestrating an offer to buy it back with private equity group Palladian Investment Partners.

Former Science Secretary George Freeman supported the intervention, saying: ‘The government is right to take steps to restore Newport Wafer Fab.’

Also on Rees-Mogg’s agenda is likely an acquisition of the London-listed software company Aveva for further investigation.

France’s Schneider, which already owns a majority stake in the Cambridge-based company, is approaching a £9 billion deal to gobble up the rest of its shares.

Under takeover rules, Schneider must make a formal offer within a week today, after announcing last month that it was investigating the move.

Shares of Aveva rose 3.1 percent, or 91p, to 3050p yesterday as the deadline approached.

Given Schneider’s joint venture with the Chinese company Delixi Group, the deal can be further explored.

The decisions crystallize the delicate balance Rees-Mogg must strike between showing the UK is open for business and protecting key industries.

Nexperia, which previously held a 14 percent stake in Newport Wafer Fab, took over the rest of the company last year in a £63m deal.

The company makes semiconductor “wafers” that are then shipped to the Philippines and cut up for use in products such as cars and smartphones.

Freeman, who opposes the takeover, said Newport Wafer Fab was the “jewel in the crown” of a cluster of chip companies in South Wales.

“If we’re serious about becoming a scientific and technological superpower, we can’t sit back and allow our top technology – of enormous strategic geopolitical importance – to be bought up by hostile states engaged in economic war, such as Russia or China.” , he said.

The United States, meanwhile, is reportedly looking to broaden restrictions on shipments to China of chips used for artificial intelligence, as well as chips-making tools.

Washington has already sent letters to major US chip companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices instructing them to stop shipping several AI chips to China unless they obtain licenses.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said there will be “inevitable collaborations with the US” on chip technology.

The government declined to comment on the FT report. Nexperia declined to comment. The Mail has reached out to Palladian for comment.