Mainland chipmaker Shanghai Belling will proceed with a 383 million yuan (HK$355.8 million) plan to make eight-inch silicon wafers despite failing to secure a strategic foreign partner in the joint venture.
A spokeswoman for the Shanghai-listed firm, a unit of China's largest semiconductor maker, said it had sealed a partnership with Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development, which will provide free land use for the plant in exchange for a 7.5 per cent stake in the venture.
Shanghai Belling will own the remainder of the venture, which will invest 414 million yuan.
The spokeswoman said the company would commit 1.27 billion yuan for the first phase of construction of the plant and planned to introduce more strategic investors to the project.
'We are still looking for strategic shareholders - foreign and domestic - but we have nothing to announce yet,' she said, adding it had enough financing in place for construction of the factory.
Shanghai Belling had been hoping to attract a foreign investor for the facility, which it began building last year in Shanghai's Pudong development zone.
