$3.8 billion! Wenye acquires Future Electronics

On September 14, 2023, Wenye Microelectronics Co., Ltd. announced that it had signed a final agreement to acquire 100% of Future Electronics Inc., with an enterprise value of US$3.8 billion in an all-cash transaction.

Zheng Jiaqiang, chairman and CEO of WT Microelectronics, said that this is a change for WT Microelectronics  and Future Electronics, and is also of great significance to the electronic component ecosystem. Future Electronics has an experienced and strong management team and a talented workforce, which are highly complementary to WT Microelectronics in terms of product supply, customer coverage and global presence. Future's management team, all employees globally and all locations and distribution centers will continue to operate and add value to the organization. We are pleased to have Mr. Omar Baig join the Wenye Microelectronics Board of Directors upon completion of the transaction and look forward to working with him and his talented colleagues around the world to build a best-in-class electronic components distributor.

The industry pointed out that Future Electronics has been rumored to be acquired and sold for a long time, and many domestic ICs have been in contact with it. However, the situation was eventually broken due to financial and price factors. In the second half of last year, the semiconductor boom began to freeze, and terminal inventories increased significantly. Many manufacturers were in the original factory. Under the request, they had to help stockpile inventory. In addition, the interest rates in the United States increased, interest expenses increased, and financial pressure doubled, which may be an important factor in accelerating the completion of this merger.

Future Electronics was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. It has 169 branches in 44 countries/regions in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. The company owns Taiwan Chuangxian Electronics; according to the research agency Gu According to Gartner's 2019 global semiconductor channel sales revenue rankings, American company Arrow ranked first in the world, second was General Assembly, American Avnet, and WT Microelectronics ranked fourth, and Future Electronics ranked seventh.

This is another important milestone for WT Microelectronics to expand its global presence after acquiring Singapore-based WT Semiconductor Technology. In April last year, the company purchased 1.93 Singapore dollars in cash per share through its 100%-owned subsidiary WT Semiconductor Pte. Ltd. With a total amount of approximately 232.2 million Singapore dollars, Wenye acquired 100% of the equity of Singapore Business World Technology and completed the relevant procedures at the end of the year. Through this merger and acquisition, WT Microelectronics was able to strengthen its product line and rapidly expand its business.

After the acquisition of Future Electronics, WT Microelectronics will be ranked among the top three in the global rankings, shaking other competitors. However, one of the competitors, Dalian General, is also the top three shareholder of Wenye, and currently holds 177,000 shares. The shareholding ratio is 19.97%, and the second largest is Xiangshuo, which holds 171,000 shares and a shareholding ratio of 19.28%.