Mitsui Chemicals has agreed to buy JSR, a leading maker of the photoresists used to print circuits onto silicon wafers, in a deal worth 1.84 trillion yen, about $11.6 billion. Announced on Monday 9 November, it is the largest deal in Japan's chemicals sector and the latest step in a government-backed push to consolidate the chip materials industry.

Mitsui's board approved the deal on Monday and signed a share purchase agreement with funds managed by JIC Capital, the state-backed investor that took JSR private in 2024. The Development Bank of Japan will invest 200 billion yen and hold non-voting preferred shares, leaving Mitsui with all voting rights. The price is 1.3921 trillion yen of equity plus 447.9 billion yen of debt.

Mitsui will fund its share with a 1.64 trillion yen bridge loan, refinanced later with bank loans, bonds and up to 150 billion yen of new shares. It aims to close in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2028, subject to regulatory approvals. Mitsui shares fell in Tokyo on Monday.

Why JSR matters

JSR makes photoresists, the light-sensitive coatings lithography machines use to transfer circuit patterns onto wafers. It is the world's second-largest maker of advanced ArF and EUV photoresists and the only company offering both main types of EUV resist, Mitsui said. Its chip materials sales rose to 196.0 billion yen in fiscal 2025 from 157.9 billion yen the year before.

Mitsui already sells chip materials, including photomask pellicles and packaging tapes, and plans to combine them with JSR's. It expects 40 billion yen of extra annual profit and plans to sell JSR's life sciences unit and other non-core businesses. Japan Investment Corp paid about 900 billion yen to take JSR private two years ago to drive consolidation; the sale to Mitsui is the payoff.