Debt-ridden Chinese chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup needs a champion with deep pockets. A consortium led by ecommerce giant Alibaba would fit the bill. It is reported to be considering a Rmb50bn ($7.8bn) takeover. The true cost could be far higher.
Alibaba’s interest makes a certain amount of sense. Its cloud computing business is growing quickly, accounting for about a tenth of the group’s total, up 29 per cent to $2.5bn in the quarter to June compared with last year. Sourcing a stable supply of server chips matters. Supply chain constraints and the risk of Chinese companies being cut off by chipmakers based in the US or those using US technology all pose a threat to the business.
Yet buying Unigroup would be more of a bailout than a strategic acquisition. Unigroup owes more than $16bn to bondholders. It has defaulted on $3.6bn worth of bonds. Local governments are reluctant to take on the 51 per cent stake that Tsinghua University is attempting to offload, wary of the debt pile.