A Chinese court has frozen Nexperia’s stakes in four of its own subsidiaries

A court in Dongguan has frozen Nexperia’s shareholdings in four of its Chinese subsidiaries, worth about 2.14 billion yuan, with the order remaining in place until August 2029. The order took effect in the last week of August, Reuters reported.

The assets include Nexperia’s stakes in semiconductor operations in Wuxi and Shanghai, as well as a wholly owned subsidiary in Wuxi of its equipment business.

Together, the frozen shareholdings are worth roughly $300 million and will remain immobilised for up to three years while the dispute proceeds through the Chinese courts.

A freeze of this kind is a preservation order, not a judgment on the underlying dispute. It prevents a defendant from disposing of assets while a claim is being considered, which means Nexperia cannot sell or restructure the affected Chinese subsidiaries during the period covered by the order.

The case was brought by Wingtech, Nexperia’s Chinese owner, which sued the company and three of its executives in May. Wingtech alleges that the Dutch government’s restrictions on Nexperia are discriminatory and is seeking 8 billion yuan in damages.

Nexperia says the order does not affect its day-to-day business. The company said the measures have no impact on operations, management or business continuity, and there is nothing in the order to suggest that production at the affected facilities has been suspended.

That distinction matters because the court has frozen ownership stakes rather than the factories themselves.

The purpose of the order is to ensure that the assets remain available if Wingtech eventually wins its case, rather than to prevent Nexperia from continuing to manufacture and sell semiconductors.

The dispute itself began in The Hague, where the Dutch government intervened in Nexperia last year over concerns that technology, funds and production assets could be moved out of the country.

A Dutch court subsequently suspended Nexperia’s chief executive and placed Wingtech’s voting rights under independent management.

Nexperia may not be a familiar name outside the semiconductor industry, but its products are used at enormous scale.

The company manufactures discrete semiconductors and basic logic chips in volumes measured in the tens of billions, supplying components that end up in cars, appliances and industrial equipment.

China responded to the Dutch intervention through the supply chain as well as through legal channels.

Beijing imposed export controls that disrupted shipments of Nexperia components, creating problems for European manufacturers that rely on those relatively basic parts and, in some cases, cannot easily replace them with alternatives.

The two governments later reached an understanding aimed at restoring normal operations, but the agreement did not resolve the underlying dispute between Wingtech and Nexperia. Litigation has continued in both jurisdictions while the companies and governments maintain competing positions over who should control the business.

We covered Wingtech’s Chinese lawsuit when it was filed in May. The significant development now is that a Chinese court has taken action to preserve assets before the case has reached a hearing on the merits.

The move also fits with a broader shift in European policy around strategic technology. The Netherlands has since expanded to cover areas including AI and biotechnology, reflecting the same concern about foreign ownership and control that prompted the intervention in Nexperia.

What makes the dispute particularly difficult is the way Nexperia is spread across several jurisdictions. It is a Dutch company, owned by a Chinese group, with manufacturing operations in China and customers across Europe, meaning the Dutch, Chinese and European authorities each have some form of leverage over different parts of the business.

That also explains why ownership has become such a central issue. Wingtech acquired Nexperia through a legal transaction, but the Dutch government has since restricted Wingtech’s control on national security grounds, and neither side has given any indication that it is prepared to abandon its position.

A ruling in either country is unlikely to settle the entire dispute. A Dutch court can address the government’s intervention and Wingtech’s voting rights in the Netherlands, but it cannot simply release assets frozen by a Chinese court, just as a Chinese judgment cannot restore Wingtech’s control over the Dutch parent company.

For European manufacturers, however, the immediate concern is less about the legal arguments than about whether the dispute reaches the supply chain again.

Nexperia produces basic components in enormous quantities, and the previous round of restrictions showed how quickly a fight over ownership can become a problem for companies that have nothing to do with the dispute itself.

The broader semiconductor conflict has produced several disputes with the same basic structure. ASML has been caught between the US and China for years, while Dutch semiconductor policy is increasingly being shaped by pressure from both Washington and Beijing.

Nexperia says the latest order does not change how the business operates, at least for now. The three-year duration of the asset freeze suggests that the Chinese court expects the ownership dispute to take considerably longer to resolve.