Japan’s Shibaura classified as core to national security amid takeover battle

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By Makiko Yamazaki

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Shibaura Electronics, a technology manufacturer at the centre of a $630 million takeover battle, has been formally classified as core to national security, a finance ministry list of such firms showed.

The thermistor maker received an unsolicited takeover bid from Taiwanese components supplier Yageo in February and called on compatriot components maker Minebea Mitsumi to submit a competing bid.

Shibaura was previously not among those designated as significant to the economy or security, meaning a would-be buyer was not obligated to notify the government prior to any deal.

The new classification is unlikely to affect the course of the deal as Yageo protectively filed for a security review based on its own analyses that some of Shibaura’s businesses may fall under the core category.

Nearly a fourth of about 4,000 listed Japanese firms are classified as core in the finance ministry list, last updated on July 15.

Shibaura representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The bidding battle has become a test of Japan’s openness to unsolicited takeovers. Stigma around such offers has eased recently yet unsolicited bids from foreign firms remain rare.

Yageo, the world’s largest maker of chip resistors, is awaiting the outcome of the security review under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, which has been extended twice.

The classification list is based mainly on company responses to ministry questions. It is the foreign suitor’s responsibility to judge whether a potential deal requires a security review, the ministry said.

Last year, Seven & i Holdings changed its self-reported national security classification to core when it was fending off a $46 billion bid from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard. The retailer said the change was unrelated to the approach, which was unlikely to be affected by the designation.

($1 = 147.1100 yen)

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing)