By Li Panpan

Leading semiconductor equipment supplier JSG(晶盛机电) failed to set up a joint venture with Applied Materials by buying its screen printing equipment business in Italy because of the Italian government’s foreign investment policy called Golden Power Act.

JSG said the event would not affect its main business and financial conditions, and there will be no damage to the company’s interests and all shareholders.

Founded in 2006 and based in Shaoxing, eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, it was listed on Hongkong’s GEM in 2012 as semiconductor material manufacturing equipment and LED substrate material manufacturing. It has 15 subsidiaries and 3 R&D centers, including one overseas R&D center.

The company planned to establish a joint venture with Applied Materials’ Hong subsidiary through a capital increase to its subsidiary and signed agreements at the end of July 2021. The joint venture planned to invest $120 million to acquire Applied Materials’ screen printing equipment business in Italy, wafer inspection equipment business in Singapore, and the assets of the above businesses in China.

However, JSG received a notice in November 2021, saying the transaction failed to pass the approval of the Golden Power Act from the Italian government.

So they signed an agreement on March 21, 2022, to terminate all the previously signed agreements. 

With expertise in modifying materials at atomic levels and on an industrial scale, Applied Materials is a world-leading company in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.