ELEX NV, the Tessenderlo, Belgium holding company, has bought Thesys, the Erfurt, Germany chip-making company that used to be the center for excellence for semiconductors in Communist East Germany. It acquired the company for an undisclosed sum from the state of Thuringen, which had already bought out another large shareholder to fully privatize the company.
ELEX plans to invest $51.5m in the Erfurt plant over the next few years, where 460 people are employed. Thesys specializes in application-specific semiconductors and the plant offers foundry services and multi-project wafers. With a majority shareholding in Melexis NV, a Belgian chipmaker, ELEX has a strong and growing base in the industry.
