* Raises bid to 140 eur/shr
* Deadline of Jan. 27 to tender shares
* Deal would create 2nd-largest 300 mm wafer maker
BERLIN, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Globalwafers
raised its takeover offer for Germany's Siltronic by 450 million
euros ($547 million) on Friday as it tries to win over
shareholders in its bid to create a leading player in the global
wafer industry.
The planned merger to create the world's second-largest
player in the 300-millimeter wafers market, behind Japan's
Shin-Etsu, had been in jeopardy after hardly any
shareholders, besides the former parent company, had accepted
the offer.
GlobalWafers said in a statement it would increase the
all-cash bid to 140 euros per share, a 12% premium over its
original offer of 125 euros per share, and raising its offer to
4.2 billion euros ($5.1 billion).
Shareholders have until Jan. 27 to tender their shares, with
the deal subject to an acceptance threshold of 65%. Siltronic's
management supports the deal.
But Barry Norris, CEO and fund manager at Argonaut, who has
previously complained the proposed takeover was unfair to
minority shareholders, said investors would not be satisfied
with the new price.
"We are on the record as saying we wont be tendering our
shares at 140 euros or even 150 euros," Norris said in an
emailed statement.
Shares in Siltronic were trading up 4.6% at 146.40 euros at
1306 GMT.
GlobalWafers said it holds 4.53% of all Siltronic shares.
Former Siltronic parent Wacker Chemie has also made a
binding commitment to transfer its entire 30.8% stake in
Siltronic to GlobalWafers.
($1 = 0.8218 euros)
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; editing by Riham Alkousaa,
Douglas Busvine, Krishna Chandra Eluri and Barbara Lewis)