Shenzhen government takes control of China’s leading chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup
- Tsinghua Unigroup is the third-largest smartphone chip maker in the world
- Move part of a campaign to reduce corruption at university-owned enterprises
China’s Tsinghua University will reduce its stake in the mainland’s leading chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup amid a central government campaign to downsize the billions of dollars of corporate assets owned by public universities.
Tsinghua Holdings, which is owned by the public university, has agreed to transfer a 36 per cent stake in Unigroup to Shenzhen Investment Holdings, owned by the southern city’s government agency overseeing state-owned assets, according to statements published by Unigroup’s three Shenzhen-listed subsidiaries on Friday.
Tsinghua Holdings will retain a 15 per cent stake, according to the statements.
The campaign started to gain momentum since last June, when the Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog found “high corruption risks” and “mismanagement problems” at school-affiliated enterprises run by 13 out of the 14 top universities it inspected. Tsinghua was the only school not named and shamed.
The party’s reform policy formulation body released a guideline in May this year to call for tightened supervision and deeper reform of such enterprises, which are mostly in the hi-tech industry, as well as a clearer division between the schools’ education and business operations.
Transferring company stakes to government-owned investment platforms is seen as one of the solutions that will also enhance the companies’ competitiveness.