Wacker Chemie raises €188M by selling 7% Siltronic stake
What's the deal? German chemical giant Wacker ChemieDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has sold 2.1 million shares in SiltronicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → AG, a major silicon wafer supplier for the semiconductor industry, raising approximately €188M in gross proceeds. The transaction, completed on May 26 via an accelerated bookbuilding process, was placed exclusively with institutional investors at €89.35 per share.
The sale cuts Wacker Chemie's stake in Siltronic from roughly 31% to about 24%. It remains Siltronic's largest shareholder.
Why now? Wacker Chemie chief executive officer Christian Hartel said the move is designed to strengthen the company's balance sheet and free up capital for future growth investments. Wacker Chemie has signalled its intention to gradually reduce its Siltronic holdings since becoming a minority shareholder in 2017.
A previous attempt to sell its entire 30.8% stake to Taiwan's GlobalWafers in a deal worth roughly €1.16B collapsed in early 2022 after failing to secure regulatory approval from German authorities. The current partial sale offers a simpler path to monetising the holding.
What could go wrong? Wacker Chemie has agreed to a 90-day lock-up on further Siltronic share sales, with certain exemptions. Any future disposals could put downward pressure on Siltronic's share price. And while Wacker Chemie has publicly backed Siltronic's strategy, its shrinking stake may eventually reduce its influence over the wafer maker's direction.
The signal: With both Wacker Chemie and Siltronic classified as mature-stage companies on Dealroom, this transaction is less about startup-style growth dynamics and more about capital reallocation within Europe's semiconductor supply chain. The failed GlobalWafers takeover in 2022 showed regulators' appetite to keep strategic wafer production under European influence — and Wacker Chemie's gradual sell-down, rather than a clean exit, suggests that political sensitivity around semiconductor sovereignty hasn't faded.
Read more: chemanalyst.com
