Asian Tech Press (Feb 7) -- Taiwan wafer maker GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. (GW) plans to invest NT$100 billion ($3.6 billion) in capacity expansion from 2022 to 2024 after its failed acquisition of German chip supplier Siltronic AG.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News reported that GlobalWafers announced on Sunday that its acquisition of German counterpart Siltronic failed to obtain the approval of the German government before the transaction deadline of Jan. 31, 2022, and the relevant contract could not be completed and lapsed.

GlobalWafers said that the funds originally planned for the buyoout will be used for capital expenditures and operational turnaround, with total capital expenditures expected to reach NT$100 billion ($3.6 billion) from 2022 to 2024, including major new plant expansions.

The Taiwan-based semiconductor company will consider a number of expansion plans for existing and new fabs, including 12-inch wafers and epiwafer, 8-inch and 12-inch silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, 8-inch float-zone (FZ) silicon wafers, silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, gallium nitride on silicon (GaN on Si) and other large-size next-generation products.

GlobalWafers' expansion plan covers investments in Asia, Europe and the U.S., with approximately $2 billion for new fab construction and $1.6 billion for expansion of existing fabs, and the output time of products from the new production line will increase quarter by quarter starting from the second half of 2023.

Doris Hsu, chairman and CEO of GlobalWafers, pointed out that even though the acquisition was unsuccessful, they had planned a dual-track strategy in advance.

Hsu also said that according to the contract with Siltronic, GlobalWafers should pay it a termination fee of 50 million euros ($57.2 million), which will be accounted forin last year's 4Q earnings.

(US$1 = NT$27.828; 1 Euro = US$1.1433)