China's Contel acquires Singapore's Solar Silicon in $1.2 bn reverse takeover

Chinese electronic equipment maker Contel Corporation Limited has agreed to acquire Singapore's Solar Silicon Resources, a unit of AuzMinerals Resources Group through a reverse takeover transaction, the largest of its kind in Singapore, in recent years.

Under the terms of the exchange deal, Contel will buy over 95 million shares of Solar Silicon, for approximately S$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion), which will be paid through the issue of 3.09 billion new shares of Contel at 50.5 Singapore cents each.

Contel said that the company plans to consolidate its every 10 shares into one share, on or before the completion of the transaction.

Singapore-based AuzMinerals is a non-trading public limited company engaged in mineral exploration in Queensland, Australia. The company has exploration rights of 7,000 sq km area including several promising properties in the 'Savannah' region of Far North Queensland.

Solar Silicon primarily concentrates on development and mining of high-purity silica resources for the global solar industry, and also operates a solar technology research division in Melbourne.

High-purity silica is used in a large range of high-tech products including photo-voltaic cells, semiconductors, silicon wafers, LCD displays, and speciality glass products.