PC Chips snaffles stake in Elitegroup

The massive PC Chips Group is taking an undisclosed stake in Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) through its Taiwanese manufacturing subsidiary, Hsing Tech Enterprise. ECS in the UK said it had no knowledge of the investment, but reports from Taiwan suggest that loss-making ECS will make huge savings on joint component purchases, enough to move back into the black, and Hsing Tech will get a seat on the ECS board. ECS ranks as one of Taiwan’s top five PC manufacturers, but it generated huge losses from which it has yet to recover, when it bet the farm on manufacturing CD-ROMs, just before the bottom fell out of the market. PC Chips Group is the world’s biggest independent producer of motherboards with around a 10 per cent marketshare and the capability to produce over one million units per month. It operates in the UK through its Protac distributorship and a spokeswoman said the company will comment tomorrow on speculation about its relationship with ECS. ®