PETALING JAYA: Shares of Malaysia’s largest semiconductor company, Inari Amertron Bhd
, fell yesterday as analysts cautioned on the plan to jointly acquire Netherlands’ loss-making Lumileds International for US$239mil.
Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB) said the joint acquisition with China’s Sanan Optoelectronics Co Ltd has limited earnings visibility.
It could also pose “integration risks”.
PublicInvest Research, on the other hand, did not anticipate a positive earnings contribution from Lumileds in the near term as it is currently in a loss-making position.
“Given the limited upside potential, we downgrade our call to ‘neutral’, maintaining our target price of RM2.30,” it said in a note.
Last Friday, Inari announced a partnership with China’s Sanan to acquire the entire stake in Lumileds, including its 11 Asian and European subsidiaries, for an enterprise value of US$239mil (RM1.03bil).
This marks Inari’s maiden entry into the global light-emitting diode (LED) market.
Inari will invest a total of US$71.4mil (RM307mil) for a 25.5% stake and future working capital requirement.
The investment will be funded via existing private placement proceeds, with transaction completion expected by March 2026.
While it is cautious on the acquisition, Maybank IB sees strategic merit in Inari diversifying beyond the radio frequency (RF) business into the LED space.
“We view this as a strategic pivot for Inari to diversify its revenue streams beyond RF, leveraging Lumileds’ established global presence in the LED markets.
“While details of the business strategy with Sanan are still being finalised, Inari is expected to take on a key role in Lumileds’ full back-end assembly operations in Penang.
“This could enhance Lumileds’ operational scale and shift it away from a loss-making position,” it said.
Lumileds’ largest operations are based in Singapore (wafer fabrication) and Malaysia (LED/module assembly and testing), with a combined issued share capital of US$713mil.
According to TrendForce, Lumileds ranked third in the global automotive lighting market in 2022, with a 9% market share.
Its current strategic focus is on headlamp LED products, some of which are outsourced to its Chinese operations for better economies of scale.
PublicInvest Research said the acquisition of Lumileds was valued at a price-to-book multiple of 1.23 times, which is considered fair.
Meanwhile, Hong Leong Investment Bank Research viewed Inari’s involvement in the acquisition of Lumileds as positive for its outsourced semiconductor assembly and test business, offering potential volume and customer diversification benefits.
“That said, investor concerns may linger around the group’s indirect exposure to the highly competitive LED market via its 26% stake in Lumileds.
“While such concerns are valid, we believe the risk is meaningfully mitigated by the presence of Sanan (China’s largest LED chipmaker) as the leading partner in the deal.
“We believe a combined Sanan-Lumileds entity could become a more competitive force in the global LED market, particularly in relation to established players such as Nichia, Epistar, and Osram.”
