Media365
The battle for control of Dutch chipmaker Nexperia entered a new phase on Wednesday, as lawyers representing the firm and its Chinese parent Wingtech Technology traded blows during a seven-hour court hearing in the Netherlands.
The Enterprise Chamber – a special Dutch court handling corporate disputes – scheduled the hearing to determine whether it should order a formal investigation into alleged mismanagement at Nexperia or overturn its earlier ruling, with a verdict set to be issued by February 11.
The court played a key role in suspending Wingtech’s control of Nexperia in October, when it issued a provisional ruling removing former CEO Zhang Xuezheng and transferring the voting rights on shares indirectly owned by Wingtech to an independent administrator.
During the hearing, the two sides sparred over the cause of the crisis, whether ex-CEO Zhang planned to erode Nexperia’s operations in Europe, and to what extent the supply chain disruptions that followed his removal should be seen as retaliation.
Lawyers representing Zhang and Wingtech argued the crisis stemmed from a rushed and unjustified intervention by the Dutch government and the Enterprise Chamber, while Nexperia’s legal team maintained the blame lay with Zhang’s mismanagement.
