Philips sells 887M TSMC shares in $1.7B deal

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 3/12/2007

Royal Philips Electronics today announced it has sold approximately 887 million shares of common stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. to long-term financial investors in Taiwan.

Philips did not disclose the names of the investors.

With the sale, which closed today, Philips has implemented the first step of the multi-phased plan announced last week to exit from its shareholding in TSMC. Philips said the sale will provide Philips with proceeds of approximately $1.7 billion (1.3 billion Euros) and will result in a non-taxable gain of approximately $952.5 million (725 million Euros) in Philips' financial results for Q1.

Philips made its first significant step away from semiconductors in 2006 when it sold the majority stake in its semiconductor division, now known as NXP Semiconductors. 

As a result of today's transaction, Philips currently holds approximately 3.3 billion shares in TSMC, reflecting a lowering of Philips' holding in TSMC from 16.2 percent to 12.8 percent, the company said.