Post by Baron von Lotsov on Nov 22, 2022 15:31:38 GMT
Here follows what the management of Nexperia have to say.
Nexperia, headquartered in The Netherlands, is shocked by the UK Government’s decision to order the divestment of 86% of its semiconductor wafer factory in South Wales, known as Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), despite the acquisition being cleared by two previous security reviews. Nexperia does not accept the national security concerns raised. The far-reaching remedies which Nexperia offered to fully address the Government’s concerns have been entirely ignored.
The UK Government chose not to enter into a meaningful dialogue with Nexperia or even visit the Newport site. More than 500 employees in Newport also raised their own significant concerns about such a divestment – the Government has chosen not to listen to them and instead taken this decision which puts the livelihoods of them and their families, as well as more than £100m of taxpayers' money, completely unnecessarily at risk. Nexperia will now challenge the order and will do everything possible to keep the factory and protect its employees in South Wales.
On 25 May 2022, Nexperia learned from public media reports that the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was exercising his statutory power to retroactively “call in” our acquisition of NWF, announced in July last year.
The Secretary of State exercised this power under the new National Security and Investment Act (which became effective in January 2022), after previous reviews by BEIS and the UK’s National Security Advisor, both of which found no substantive national security concerns that should give cause to block the acquisition.
Nexperia has now been notified by the Secretary of State that, despite the two previous reviews and our proposals, he now requires the divestment of 86% of Nexperia Newport.
Nexperia does not accept the potential national security concerns raised. The Company proposed far-reaching remedies to BEIS’s Investment Security Unit that fully address even these potential concerns. Nexperia offered, amongst others, not to conduct the compound semiconductor activities of potential concern and to provide the UK Government with direct control and participation in the management of Newport. There has been no dialogue between the Government and Nexperia on these proposals. The Government has not visited Newport, has not spoken with the over 500 employees whose jobs are now at risk, and none of the three responsible Secretaries of State have responded to Nexperia's requests for dialogue.
Responding to the decision on behalf of Nexperia, UK Country Manager, Toni Versluijs, said:
“We are genuinely shocked. The decision is wrong, and we will appeal to overturn this divestment order to protect the over 500 jobs at Newport. This decision sends a clear signal that the UK is closed for business. The UK is not Levelling Up but Levelling Down communities like South Wales.
“The decision is wrong – in many aspects. It is legally wrong – being disproportionate given the remedies Nexperia has proposed. It is wrong for the employees of Nexperia Newport– creating further uncertainty. It is wrong for the UK semiconductor industry – taking out a strong player. It is wrong for the UK economy – undermining its semiconductor industry as we brought new production to Newport. It is wrong for the UK taxpayer – who could now be faced with a bill of over £100 million for the fallout from this decision.
“We will appeal this wholly incorrect decision. We are hugely disappointed by this extraordinary U-turn, and the greater uncertainty that it creates for our employees and their families in Wales whilst also not recognising the commitment of our 1,000 employees in Manchester. As a globally successful European-centred company, with our roots at Royal Dutch Philips and proud, 90-year track record in Britain, it is astonishing that our employees face such jeopardy and hundreds of millions of pounds of foreign direct investment are not welcome.
“We rescued an investment-starved company from collapse. We have repaid taxpayer loans, secured jobs, wages, bonuses and pensions, and agreed to spend more than £80m on equipment upgrades since early 2021. Those who sold the business to us agreed that it was the only viable solution, and the deal was publicly welcomed by the Welsh Government.
“Quite apart from the apparent concerns raised by various parties, which we have been keen to address openly, we have been shocked by the Government’s process and its refusal to have a meaningful dialogue to discuss our proposals for a mutually positive solution. We made every effort to engage, to explain our business and made bold proposals for our operations in Newport and its management to nullify any potential fears about possible national security risks. We have been especially disappointed that we were denied the opportunity to discuss these with the Secretary of State himself or any of his political or Private Office team.”
Nexperia will prioritise looking after the impacted employees at Nexperia Newport and reducing the negative impact on its customers.
The UK Government chose not to enter into a meaningful dialogue with Nexperia or even visit the Newport site. More than 500 employees in Newport also raised their own significant concerns about such a divestment – the Government has chosen not to listen to them and instead taken this decision which puts the livelihoods of them and their families, as well as more than £100m of taxpayers' money, completely unnecessarily at risk. Nexperia will now challenge the order and will do everything possible to keep the factory and protect its employees in South Wales.
On 25 May 2022, Nexperia learned from public media reports that the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was exercising his statutory power to retroactively “call in” our acquisition of NWF, announced in July last year.
The Secretary of State exercised this power under the new National Security and Investment Act (which became effective in January 2022), after previous reviews by BEIS and the UK’s National Security Advisor, both of which found no substantive national security concerns that should give cause to block the acquisition.
Nexperia has now been notified by the Secretary of State that, despite the two previous reviews and our proposals, he now requires the divestment of 86% of Nexperia Newport.
Nexperia does not accept the potential national security concerns raised. The Company proposed far-reaching remedies to BEIS’s Investment Security Unit that fully address even these potential concerns. Nexperia offered, amongst others, not to conduct the compound semiconductor activities of potential concern and to provide the UK Government with direct control and participation in the management of Newport. There has been no dialogue between the Government and Nexperia on these proposals. The Government has not visited Newport, has not spoken with the over 500 employees whose jobs are now at risk, and none of the three responsible Secretaries of State have responded to Nexperia's requests for dialogue.
Responding to the decision on behalf of Nexperia, UK Country Manager, Toni Versluijs, said:
“We are genuinely shocked. The decision is wrong, and we will appeal to overturn this divestment order to protect the over 500 jobs at Newport. This decision sends a clear signal that the UK is closed for business. The UK is not Levelling Up but Levelling Down communities like South Wales.
“The decision is wrong – in many aspects. It is legally wrong – being disproportionate given the remedies Nexperia has proposed. It is wrong for the employees of Nexperia Newport– creating further uncertainty. It is wrong for the UK semiconductor industry – taking out a strong player. It is wrong for the UK economy – undermining its semiconductor industry as we brought new production to Newport. It is wrong for the UK taxpayer – who could now be faced with a bill of over £100 million for the fallout from this decision.
“We will appeal this wholly incorrect decision. We are hugely disappointed by this extraordinary U-turn, and the greater uncertainty that it creates for our employees and their families in Wales whilst also not recognising the commitment of our 1,000 employees in Manchester. As a globally successful European-centred company, with our roots at Royal Dutch Philips and proud, 90-year track record in Britain, it is astonishing that our employees face such jeopardy and hundreds of millions of pounds of foreign direct investment are not welcome.
“We rescued an investment-starved company from collapse. We have repaid taxpayer loans, secured jobs, wages, bonuses and pensions, and agreed to spend more than £80m on equipment upgrades since early 2021. Those who sold the business to us agreed that it was the only viable solution, and the deal was publicly welcomed by the Welsh Government.
“Quite apart from the apparent concerns raised by various parties, which we have been keen to address openly, we have been shocked by the Government’s process and its refusal to have a meaningful dialogue to discuss our proposals for a mutually positive solution. We made every effort to engage, to explain our business and made bold proposals for our operations in Newport and its management to nullify any potential fears about possible national security risks. We have been especially disappointed that we were denied the opportunity to discuss these with the Secretary of State himself or any of his political or Private Office team.”
Nexperia will prioritise looking after the impacted employees at Nexperia Newport and reducing the negative impact on its customers.
This is what Grant Shapps said yesterday.
The hon. Lady is quite right to be a doughty defender of her constituents, and I acknowledge that it will be a concerning time for 500 or so employees. She is not privy to the information that I have had to weigh up to come to this national security decision, which I have done with the utmost diligence and taking all of the factors into account; nor, I am afraid, can I accede to her request to publish that information. I would point her to the fact that the then shadow Business Secretary, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband), at the time of this takeover did actually call on the Government to use powers under the National Security and Investment Act to scrutinise the takeover, which I have done. In answer to her question about what the Government are doing, we had last week the £1.6 billion confirmation from the Chancellor for the nine Catapults, of which the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult in Wales is a part. HoC
In case you were also wondering, they don't actually make chips there any more. It is a wafer testing facility. The wafers come in and each chip on the wafer needs to be checked for defects before chip packaging so as you save money, or else you would be packaging dud chips. Anyway, even so it is a foot in the door to a highly important global industry which I honestly doubt the UK will ever compete in. Who would chance £20bn investments for a modern fab if this shit happens.
One last point:
Shapps founded a web publishing business, How To Corp Limited, with his wife while he was recovering from cancer.[20] The company marketed business publications and software. The existence of at least three people who allegedly provided testimonials for the company has been questioned.[21] Shapps stood down as a director in July 2008; his wife remained as director until the company was dissolved in 2014.[22]
In September 2012, Google blacklisted 19 of the Shapps' business websites for violating rules on copyright infringement related to the web scraping-based TrafficPayMaster software sold by them.[23][24] Shapps's web marketing business's 20/20 Challenge publication also drew criticism. It cost $497 and promised customers earnings of $20,000 in 20 days. Upon purchase, the "toolkit" was revealed to be an ebook, advising the user to create their own toolkit and recruit 100 "Joint Venture Partners" to resell it for a share of the profits.[25][26]-wiki
In September 2012, Google blacklisted 19 of the Shapps' business websites for violating rules on copyright infringement related to the web scraping-based TrafficPayMaster software sold by them.[23][24] Shapps's web marketing business's 20/20 Challenge publication also drew criticism. It cost $497 and promised customers earnings of $20,000 in 20 days. Upon purchase, the "toolkit" was revealed to be an ebook, advising the user to create their own toolkit and recruit 100 "Joint Venture Partners" to resell it for a share of the profits.[25][26]-wiki
