Taiwan's Qisda near $164 mln private equity stake sale

TAIPEI, March 29 (Reuters) - Qisda Corp (2352.TW: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the company formerly known as BenQ, is preparing to sell a stake in itself to a private equity investor for about T$5 billion ($164 million), a spokeswoman said on Saturday.

The deal is close to being done, said spokeswoman Colleen Ho, although she did not provide the name of the investor or give a more specific timeframe.

Under terms being discussed, the investor will buy 226 million Qisda shares for T$22.11 each representing a 8.8 percent discount to its Friday closing price of T$24.25, the Chinese language Commercial Times reported, without citing sources.

Market capitalisation of Qisda, a maker of consumer electronics, now stands at about T$37.3 billion, meaning the investment would represent about 13 percent of the company, according to Reuters calculations.

Separately, an investment banking source told Reuters that a team from U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was in Taiwan this week performing advanced due diligence on a local tech company. He declined to name the company.

Blackstone could not be reached for comment.

Local media have also speculated that the buyer could be a private equity arm of AU Optronics (2409.TW: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), currently Qisda's biggest outside shareholder with a 5.12 stake, according to Reuters Research.

According to the Commercial Times report, Qisda's board met on Friday and approved the sale.

Qisda, which struggled under the weight of the money-losing mobile phone business it acquired from Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in late 2005, had indicated at an investor conference earlier this month that it did not rule out raising capital.