Wacker Chemie sells 6.7% Siltronic stake via accelerated bookbuilding placement

Wacker Chemie AG has placed about 2.2 million Siltronic AG shares at €77.25 per share through an accelerated bookbuilding placement to qualified and institutional investors, reducing its stake to about 15 percent. The sale corresponds to 6.7 percent of Siltronic's capital stock and generates gross proceeds of approximately €171 million. Wacker has agreed not to dispose of further Siltronic shares for 90 days after the placement launch, and Rothschild & Co acted as its financial advisor.

Key facts

Market context

Wacker Chemie is a German specialty chemicals group whose polysilicon business supplies high-purity silicon used to make wafers for semiconductors and solar cells. Siltronic is a wafer maker that produces silicon wafers for chip manufacturers, so the two companies sit at different points in the same value chain. Demand for wafers is driven mainly by consumer electronics, automotive chips, data center hardware and industrial electronics, and it tends to rise and fall with the semiconductor production cycle. Wacker's stake reduction is a financial transaction rather than a change in production, so it does not by itself alter wafer or polysilicon supply. For buyers and investors, the more relevant signal is how a parent's shareholding changes can affect the strategic relationship between a chemical supplier and a wafer producer, and how the capital released could be deployed. The move is a portfolio decision that leaves Wacker a significant shareholder in Siltronic.

Source: official release on wacker.com. Summary and context written by Market Krystal.