Japan’s state-backed investment fund is preparing to sell chip-materials maker JSR Corp. to Mitsui Chemicals Inc. in a deal that could exceed 1.3 trillion yen, or about $8.2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. That would make it the largest acquisition ever in Japan’s chemicals industry.
Mitsui Chemicals said Wednesday that it had not announced any transaction and that the reports weren’t based on information it provided, but it confirmed it has been considering various options to raise its corporate value, including a purchase of JSR. No decision has been made, the company said. A decision could come within the month, one of the people said.
Investors balk at the price tag
Mitsui Chemicals shares fell 13% after the plan surfaced, reflecting concern about how the Tokyo company would pay. Its market value is about 800 billion yen, smaller than the expected price. At the end of June it held about 217.8 billion yen in cash against 876.4 billion yen of interest-bearing debt.
Japan Investment Corp., which is overseen by the trade ministry, took JSR private about two years ago for some 900 billion yen, intending to use it as a platform to consolidate Japan’s fragmented semiconductor-materials industry. A sale now would let the fund lock in a gain as AI-driven demand lifts valuations across the chip supply chain.
A key chip ingredient
JSR, founded in 1957, is one of the world’s leading makers of photoresists, the light-sensitive chemicals used to print circuit patterns onto wafers. Mitsui Chemicals has been expanding its own semiconductor-materials business, and a combination would create one of Japan’s larger suppliers to chipmakers. Analysts have said scale is becoming more important as AI spending expands the market for advanced materials.
A deal would surpass Showa Denko’s 2020 purchase of Hitachi Chemical, which created Resonac Holdings, as the sector’s biggest. JIC and JSR didn’t comment.
