The Chinese owner of Britain’s biggest microchip plant has been forced to reassure investors about its financial health following a share price slump.
Shanghai-listed Wingtech insisted that business was continuing as normal in a stock exchange update that followed a one-day crash last week.
It comes as pressure mounts on ministers to reverse the £63m sale of Newport Wafer Fab to Nexperia, a Dutch company owned by Wingtech.
On Monday MPs wrote to ministers demanding they come clean on a security review into last summer’s takeover.
Wingtech, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, issued an update noting recent “fluctuations” in its share price but said that business was proceeding at a steady momentum.
It said Nexperia was enjoying record profits and that profitability at Wingtech’s manufacturing business, which assembles electronics such as mobile phones for Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, was improving.
However, shares in the company, which is worth about 100bn yuan (£12bn), have fallen by more than 40pc since peaking in December. Wingtech issued the update after its shares fell by the maximum one-day limit of 10pc in late March.
Manufacturing in China has been disrupted in recent weeks by lockdowns in major cities as Beijing struggles to maintain its zero-Covid policy.
On Tuesday, MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to the Government saying it appeared that Boris Johnson had failed to order a security review into the deal.
The committee said the takeover “represents the sale of one of the UK’s prized assets to a strategic competitor and potentially comprises national security”.
The Prime Minister said shortly after the deal was announced that he had ordered Sir Stephen Lovegrove, the national security adviser, to review the transaction.
However, the committee’s chairman, Tom Tugendhat, said the MPs had written to the Government asking for clarification after it said there were no details of such a review taking place.
Mr Tugendhat said: “The Prime Minister’s assurances that work is underway are welcome. However, so few details have been provided to the committee, that we are left with the unfortunate conclusion that no review has taken place.
“Today, the committee is calling on the Government to clarify the reasons why the Prime Minister requested a review in Newport Wafer Fab and why this review has not begun. The Government has the tools, it just needs to use them.”
The Government has said it has taken no decision on the plant’s future, meaning it could still block the deal.
