Wafer foundry UMC announced on the 25th that it has obtained final approval to purchase the entire shareholding of Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor (MIFS), a 12-inch wafer fab jointly with Fujitsu Semiconductor (FSL), and is scheduled to complete the acquisition on October 1 this year.

In 2014, UMC and FSL2 reached an agreement, and UMC obtained a 15.9% stake in MIFS from FSL in phases. FSL has now been approved to transfer the remaining 84.1% of MIFS shares to UMC, and the total amount of the final transaction for the acquisition of the remaining shares is 54.4 billion yen. MIFS will become its wholly-owned subsidiary of UMC and will be renamed United Semiconductor Japan Co., Ltd. (USJC).

UMC said the merger, combined with USJC's world-class manufacturing quality standards and UMC's wafer expertise, will provide stronger support for new and existing Japanese customers. The addition of USJC is in line with the strategy of diversifying the production capacity of the Asia Pacific 12-inch factory production base. Looking forward to the future, UMC continues to focus on the special process technology, through internal and external assessment of expansion opportunities, seeking growth opportunities in line with this strategy.