Tsinghua Unigroup
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Tsinghua Unigroup is a Chinese technology and semiconductor manufacturer that also supplies digital infrastructure and services to domestic and global markets. Based in Beijing, it is among the country’s largest technology conglomerates; subsidiaries include
UNISOC UNISOC (), formerly Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (), is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Shanghai which produces chipsets for mobile phones. UNISOC develops its business in two major fields - consumer electronics and i ...
, China’s largest mobile phone chip designer. Other core subsidies design and manufacture network equipment and server and storage products, and produce system integration, network security and software applications.


Overview

Tsinghua Unigroup has five main subsidiaries , New H3C Technologies, UNISOC Communications Co, Guoxin Micro, and UniCloud Technology Co. Other subsidiaries include Unisplendour Corp Ltd. and France-based Linxens, a design and manufacturing company of microconnectors for
smart cards A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...
,
RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
antennas and inlays. The company designs and manufactures 64-layer flash memory chips via its subsidiary YMTC. U.S. technology company Intel owns a 20 percent stake in Tsinghua Unigroup’s UNISOC subsidiary—a consolidation of Tsinghua Unigroup acquisitions of Spreadtrum Communications, a fabless semiconductor company, and semiconductor components manufacturer RDA Microelectronics. Tsinghua Unigroup operates a joint venture with
Hewlett Packard Enterprise The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) is an American multinational information technology company based in Spring, Texas, United States. HPE was founded on November 1, 2015, in Palo Alto, California, as part of the splitting of the ...
(HPE), as H3C Technologies Co, created after Tsinghua Unigroup purchased a 51 percent stake.


History


Origins

Tsinghua Unigroup was founded in 1988 by
Tsinghua Holdings Tsinghua Holdings Corp., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tsinghua University, itself a public university in China. The company was established as an in-house asset management company for Tsinghua's subsidiaries that were established in the 19 ...
, a wholly-owned business unit of
Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...
, a major state research university in Beijing. The company was founded as Tsinghua University Sci-Tech General Company, then renamed Tsinghua Unigroup in 1993. Tsinghua Unigroup is a fabless semiconductor company that 100% owned by Beijing Zhiguangxin Holdings Limited ("Zhiguangxin"), has changed to no actual controller as there is no actual controller of Zhiguangxin on July 11, 2022. At the same time, the fifth session of the Board of Directors of Tsinghua Unigroup held its first meeting and elected Li Bin as the board chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup ; and appointed Li Bin to also serve as the general manager of Tsinghua Unigroup. Lin Bin remains the chairman of Financial Information Technology Alliance, JLQ Technology, WeEn , UTAC, Huba Control, and Rongzhi Group.


21st century

In 2013 and 2014, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired, first, Spreadtrum Communications, now UNISOC, a fabless semiconductor company that develops mobile chipset platforms, then RDA Microelectronics, a semiconductor component manufacturer. In 2014, Tsinghua Unigroup consolidated Spreadtrum and RDA to create UniSpreadtrum RDA, later UNISOC, in which
Intel Corp. Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
agreed to invest $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake. In May 2015, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired a 51 percent stake in Hewlett-Packard’s H3C Technologies, a China-based data-networking company, for approximately $2.3 billion. In September 2015,
Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produ ...
announced that Unisplendour would make a US$3.775 billion equity investment to purchase its newly issued common stock, for about a 15 percent stake in the U.S. firm. Western Digital stated, in February 2016, that Unisplendour would not move forward with its offer following a decision by the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, commonly pronounced "Cifius" ) is an inter-agency committee of the United States government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companie ...
(CFIUS) to investigate the deal. In 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup partnered with Western Digital to establish a
big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
storage joint venture, Unis WDC Storage Co. in Nanjing In 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup founded
Yangtze Memory Technologies Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) is a Chinese semiconductor integrated device manufacturer specializing in flash memory (NAND) chips. Founded in Wuhan, China in 2016 with government investment and a goal of reducing the country's dependenc ...
(YMTC), its IDM memory subsidiary. In 2017, Tsinghua Unigroup announced plans to build two new memory-chip factories, in
Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
and
Chengdu Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese provin ...
. Other investments include about a six percent stake in Portland, Oregon-based
Lattice Semiconductor Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Headquartered in the Silicon Forest area of Hillsboro, Oregon, the company ...
, acquired in 2017. In June 2018, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired French
smart chip Smart or SMART may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Smart'' (Hey! Say! JUMP album), 2014 * Smart (Hotels.com), former mascot of Hotels.com * ''Smart'' (Sleeper album), 1995 debut album by Sleeper * ''SMart'', a children's television ser ...
components maker Linxens for a reported $2.6 billion. A restructuring proposal that would have Guoxin Micro acquire Unic Linxens (formerly Unigroup Liansheng) was rejected by the
China Securities Regulatory Commission The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is a government ministry of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is the main regulator of the securities industry in China. History China's first Securities Law was ...
(CSRC) in June 2020. In 2018, Tsinghua Unigroup also announced the construction of a $1.9 billion Linxens plant in the Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Area in Tianjin, China. The company broke ground in September 2019, and construction of a main factory building was completed in July 2020.


Financial issues

On Dec 7th, 2020,Tsinghua Unigroup made an information disclosure that due to the liquidity constraint of Tsinghua Unigroup, as of the payment date (November 16, 2020), Tsinghua Unigroup was unable to raise the funds due for repayment. The debt financing Instrument called 17 Uni PPN005 could not be fully repaid as scheduled, which constituted a repudiatory breach.The cumulative amount of matured debt that Tsinghua Unigroup is obligated to settle is RMB1.3 billion. It emerged on July 8th 2021, that one of the creditors of Tsinghua Unigroup - Huishang Bank - has applied to the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court for bankruptcy reorganization. On July 16th, 2021, Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court decided to accept the reorganization case of Tsinghua Unigroup,and on the same day appointed the liquidation team of Tsinghua Unigroup as the administrator , which is specifically responsible for carrying out reorganization work. On January 17th, 2022, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ruled to approve the reorganization plan for the substantive consolidation of Tsinghua Unigroup and seven other enterprises and to terminate the reorganization proceedings of Tsinghua Unigroup and seven other enterprises. According to the reorganization plan approved by the ruling of the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court, the consortium consisting of Wise Road Capital and Jac Capital as the leading party ("Zhilu Jianguang Consortium") is a strategic investor in the substantive merger and reorganization of seven enterprises, including Tsinghua UniGroup, Zhilu Jianguang Joint Venture plans to undertake 100% of the equity of Tsinghua UniGroup after restructuring through its war investment acquisition platform Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding. ("Zhiguangxin"). On July 11th, 2022, Tsinghua UniGroup has completed the registration procedures and 100% of the equity interest of Tsinghua UniGroup has been registered under Zhiguangxin. As of July 12th, 2022, the execution of the reorganization plan of Tsinghua UniGroup was completed. In late 2021, two prominent funds -- Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co. and Wise Road Capital -- appeared as new backers of Tsinghua Unigroup. On Jan. 17, a local court in Beijing gave the go-ahead to the consortium's restructuring plan for the company, thereby ending the reorganization proceedings. In 2022, Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding took ownership of Tsinghua Unigroup. Beijing Zhiguangxin Holding's largest shareholder is Anhui state-owned fund Wuhu Xinhou Yunzhi Equity Investment Partnership.


Subsidiaries


Guoxin Micro

Guoxin Micro designs microelectronic products, including
integrated circuits An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tin ...
, smart card chips and memory chips. Founded in 2001, Unigroup Guoxin Micro was listed on the
Shenzhen Stock Exchange The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE; ) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shenzhen, in the People's Republic of China. It is one of three stock exchanges operating independently in Mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exch ...
in 2005 (002049.SZ). In 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup became a controlling shareholder in Guoxin Micro.


Unicloud

Unicloud Technology Co., Ltd. is an industrial intelligent manufacturer that develops urban and industry cloud platforms for the construction and operation of
smart cities A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in retur ...
in China.


UNISOC

UNISOC, formerly Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., is a Chinese fabless semiconductor company headquartered in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
which produces chipsets for
mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...
s. UNISOC develops its business in two major fields - consumer electronics and industrial electronics, including smart phones, feature phones, smart audio systems, smart wear and other application fields; Industrial electronics cover the fields such as LAN IoT, WAN IoT and smart display. As of 2021, it is the fourth largest mobile processor manufacturer in the world, after Mediatek, Qualcomm and Apple, with 9% of global market share.


Linxens

Linxens is a smart chips components maker specializing in security and identification, such as flexible connectors used in smart cards and RFID antennas and inlays. In 2018, Tsinghua Unigroup, through its subsidiary Unigroup Liansheng, acquired Linxens for about $2.6 billion. Founded in 1979, Linxens is headquartered in
Levallois-Perret Levallois-Perret () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department and Île-de-France region of north-central France. It lies some from the centre of Paris in the north-western suburbs of the French capital. It is the most densely populated ...
, France and, as of 2018, employs over 3,200 staff at nine production sites worldwide. It also has offices in China, Singapore and Thailand, and operates six R&D centers. In June 2019, Guoxin Micro announced a plan to acquire Unigroup Liansheng, including its main asset, Linxens; the deal was rejected by the Chinese securities regulator the following year.


Unisplendour (UNIS)

Unisplendour Corporation Ltd. (UNIS) is a technology company that primarily provides information technology (IT) infrastructure product services. Founded in 1999 and listed on the
Shenzhen Stock Exchange The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE; ) is a stock exchange based in the city of Shenzhen, in the People's Republic of China. It is one of three stock exchanges operating independently in Mainland China, the others being the Beijing Stock Exch ...
(000938.SZ), UNIS is headquartered in Beijing, China. It operates as the holding company for H3C Technologies Co. In 2016, it also established a joint venture with Western Digital Corp to market and sell Western Digital’s current data storage systems in China.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Beijing Semiconductor companies of China Foundry semiconductor companies Government-owned companies of China