(Author: Judy Lin, Chief Editor, LEDinside)

The sales of Aixtron to a Chinese investor last Friday sparked market rumors, with some industry insiders over interpreting and speculating San’an Opto is involved in the acquisition. LEDinside takes a look into this particular market rumor.

Aixtron, one of the top MOCVD suppliers in the LED industry, announced last Friday that it is in talks with the German arm of Chinese investor Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (GCI) to sell the company for EUR 670 million (US $750 million). Grand Chip Investment, the 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Fujian GCI, has voluntarily offered to buy Aixtron shares at a price of EUR 6 per share. The transaction will only proceed if 60% of Aixtron shareholders approve the sale:

"The offer shall be subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and a minimum acceptance threshold of 60% of all of AIXTRON’s outstanding shares."

Following the acquisition, Martin Goetzeler is to remain CEO of AIXTRON and Dr. Bernd Schulte is to remain in his function as COO. GCI will nominate four candidates to the six-member Supervisory Board after the transaction closes.

The fact that the parent company is based in Fujian, China and one of its main investor is Xiamen Bohao Investment has led some in the industry to form a conspiracy theory that San’an Opto might be involved.

San’an Opto, which is based in the same region as Xiamen Bohao Investment, was one of Aixtron’s largest clients, but it retracted a 50 MOCVD order and was only willing to purchase three units out of its original order in early December 2015.

The rejected order hurt Aixtron finances significantly. According to a Bloomberg report the company shares tumbled 43% the day after the announcement on Dec. 10, 2015. In the aftermath, investors also filed lawsuits against the equipment maker in the following months for presenting misleading investment information.

Those speculating San’an Opto’s involvement in the latest acquisition claim the Chinese LED chip maker rejected the MOCVD order to disrupt Aixtron’s financial performance, so it could acquire the company at a discounted price.

The conspiracy theory is farfetched.

According to sources from Aixtron, the current acquisition is purely financial so the company can acquire funding to develop its next generation  equipment, that might include MOCVDs for semiconductors, OLED and other application sectors. There is also no evidence to support San’an Opto’s involvement in the Chinese investment group.

Chinese investors growing interest in semiconductor technologies, and MOCVD equipment is mainly driven by the nation’s policy to acquire upstream component, equipment and IC semiconductor design capacity, according to LEDinside analysts. This involves reducing reliance on MOCVD imports and supporting domestic manufacturers, where local manufacturers are still behind.

Aixtron sales probably will not come too surprising to some, when considering the general pattern the LED industry has seen over the past two years, where growing number of international companies have chosen Chinese investors, such as Bridgelux and the recent RayVio to name a few. Only time will tell how the Chinese investments will affect these global companies in the long run.   

[Editor's note: The second paragraph has been amended as of May 24, 2016. The original article had misinterpreted the conditions of Aixtron's sales, and we apologize for any inconvinence caused.]