Chinese take bite of UK firm Apple ditched

MICROCHIP maker Imagine Technologies has agreed a sale to China-backed private equity firm Canyon Bridge for £550 million.

Imagination employs 1,700 staff in Hertfordshire and put itself up for sale in June after its biggest customer, Apple, said it would no longer use the firm’s technology in its mobile phones. Apple retains an 8 per cent stake in the company.

Imagination makes graphics processors crucial for gaming, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. It has warned Apple, which has opened an office nearby, not to infringe its patents.

Imagination’s shares plunged more than 60 per cent in April after Apple’s announcement. The 182p per share offer is a premium of 42p to its price the day before the offer was announced.

Canyon Bridge is backed by state-owned Chinese fund Yitai Capital. It said it has ‘no plans’ to cut UK jobs and promised to help Imagination enter the Chinese and Asian markets. The company’s technology is suited to the ‘internet of things’ where everyday items like home heating systems connect to the internet.

Ray Bingham, partner at Canyon Bridge, said the fund is buying staff brainpower and most employees want to stay where they are.

‘This is not like investing in a factory where you can box up the equipment and take it some place else,’ he said.

The deal comes a week after Canyon Bridge’s attempt to acquire US firm Lattice Semiconductor was blocked by President Trump over national security issues.