Shareholders of Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have voted in favour of a 3.9 billion US dollar takeover bid by an Abu Dhabi firm, the companies said Wednesday.
A joint statement by the Singapore firm and Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) said the bid was approved by 82.56 percent of shareholders representing nearly 100 percent of shares held.
ATIC's 3.9-billion-dollar offer to buy the Singapore foundry was announced in September and if approved by regulators the deal would create one of the world's largest microchip makers.
Chartered is the world's third biggest maker of custom-made chips, but it has been struggling to catch up with leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), also of Taiwan.
Owned by the Abu Dhabi government, ATIC focuses on the high-tech sector and it is the main shareholder in Globalfoundries, a joint venture with US microprocessor giant Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that makes next-generation chips.
