Newport Wafer Fab has been sold to Nexperia


Cardiff – Corporate Finance International (’CFI’) is pleased to announce that they acted as advisor to Newport Wafer Fab on its sale to Nexperia.

Nexperia, the expert in essential semiconductors, has completed the transaction to acquire Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), contributing to the company’s growth ambitions and investments to boost global production capacity. With the acquisition, Nexperia obtains 100% ownership of the Welsh semiconductor production facility. Nexperia Newport will continue to have a strong position in the Welsh ecosystem and technology development and will secure the current jobs at the Newport site and others across the region.

Commented Achim Kempe, Nexperia’s Chief Operations Officer: “We are very excited to include Newport as part of our global manufacturing footprint. Nexperia has ambitious growth plans and adding Newport supports the growing global demand for semiconductors. The Newport facility has a very skilled operational team and has a crucial role to play to ensure continuity of operations. We look forward to building a future together”.

Added Paul James, Managing Director at the Newport site: “The acquisition is great news for the staff here in Newport and the wider business community in the region as Nexperia is providing much-needed investment and stability for the future. We are looking forward to becoming part of the global Nexperia team and are keen to keep the current workforce. Additional local resources may be required too. We are also pleased that we will be able continue to contribute to the local ecosystem.”

Drew Nelson, departing chairman Newport said: “The change in ownership of the Newport site marks an important step for the future of the facility as well as for the region. We are pleased that we are able to maintain the expertise in developing high end silicon devices in the 200 mm wafer fab while at the same time opening up opportunities for us to add new semiconductor technologies”.

Newport Wafer Fab makes complex wafers for electronic devices at its South Wales factory, which was set up as Inmos in 1982 in a building designed by Richard Rogers.

The Newport semiconductor production site was first established in 1982 and was originally named INMOS. Current capacity is over 35,000 200 mm wafer starts per month covering a wide range of semiconductor technologies ranging from MOSFETs and Trench IGBTs using wafer thinning methods to CMOS, analogue and compound semiconductors.

Nexperia is a leading expert in the high-volume production of essential semiconductors, components that are required by every electronic design in the world. The company’s extensive portfolio includes diodes, bipolar transistors, ESD protection devices, MOSFETs, GaN FETs and analog & logic ICs. Headquartered in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Nexperia annually ships more than 90 billion products, meeting the stringent standards set by the automotive industry. These products are recognized as benchmarks in efficiency – in process, size, power and performance — with industry-leading small packages that save valuable energy and space.

With decades of experience in supplying to the world’s leading companies, Nexperia has over 12,000 employees across Asia, Europe and the US. Nexperia, a subsidiary of Wingtech Technology Co., Ltd. (600745.SS), has an extensive IP portfolio and is certified to IATF 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.

The transaction closed on 6 July 2021.

Related

Our latest transactions

See all transactions

Scroll to Top