SilTerra Malaysia was the subject of a takeover battle in February which saw DNeX and a Chinese partner outbid Taiwan's Foxconn.

SilTerra was notified that the arrests had been made on Wednesday by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) "to assist in their investigation of a potential offence".

"Based on the limited information available... the MACC investigation may potentially be related to a legacy issue," DNeX said.

MACC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

DNeX and Beijing Integrated Circuit Advanced Manufacturing and High-End Equipment Equity Investment Fund Center bid https://www.reuters.com/technology/foxconn-talks-buy-stake-malaysias-dnex-report-2021-05-27 273 million ringgit ($65.98 million) to buy SilTerra from sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional.

DNeX owns 60% of SilTerra while its Chinese partner holds the remainder.

In June, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, as Foxconn is formally known, bought a 5% equity interest in DNeX via its Singapore unit.

The stake has shrunk to 3.88% following an additional listing of shares, Refinitiv data showed.

(Reporting by Liz Lee, additional reporting by Rozanna Latiff; editing by Jason Neely)