One of Britain’s biggest chip firms has been put up for sale as its controversial Chinese owners seek an exit from the business.
Hertfordshire-based Imagination Technologies, which counts Apple among its biggest customers, is understood to have already received several expressions of interest after its owners, Chinese-backed Canyon Bridge, are thought to have instructed advisers Lazard to find a buyer.
Imagination Technologies, which has in the past designed chips for the iPhone, was removed from the London Stock Exchange in 2017 after Canyon Bridge acquired it for £550m — a figure the current owners hope to surpass in any eventual sale. Apple and Intel were among the firm’s biggest shareholders back when it was a listed company.
Imagination’s owners have courted controversy in the past, after an employment tribunal found that its former CEO, Ron Black, was unfairly dismissed after raising concerns about the company’s plans to move operations to China.
In its most recent published accounts, the firm, which has around 650 employees, posted turnover of £125m, a rise of 3.6% on the previous year, while profits declined sharply to £2.6m. The company said it had been hit by increased export controls on China by the US and the UK.
In 2020, Imagination renewed its multi-year contract with Apple which was last signed in 2014. The current contract is understood to run out later this year. Apple has accounted for as much as 40% of Imagination’s turnover in the past.
Britain’s most valuable tech company, Arm, could be a possible suitor to acquire the company. Arm’s largest shareholder SoftBank recently acquired struggling Bristol-based chipmaker Graphcore, paving the way for Arm to open a third UK office in Bristol, while Arm has also reportedly approached US chip giant Intel to acquire some parts of the business, an offer which was ultimately rebuffed.
Read more: How Arm became Britain’s most successful tech company
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