Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG, AEX:PHI) today announced that, market conditions permitting, it plans to sell common shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TAIEX: 2330, NYSE: TSM) in a share repurchase program as announced by TSMC.

This TSMC share repurchase program is part of the fourth step in the multi-phased plan to facilitate an orderly exit by Philips from its shareholding in TSMC as announced by Philips and TSMC on March 9, 2007. This plan aims to reduce Philips' holding in TSMC to zero before the end of 2010. Today, TSMC has announced it plans to execute this share buyback program via open market transactions on the Taiwan Stock Exchange for up to USD 1 billion worth of shares. Philips plans to participate in additional share repurchase programs in the next years as part of its effort to further build down its holding in TSMC.

Currently, Philips holds approximately 1.3 billion TSMC shares representing approximately 5% of TSMC's issued shares. This total stake is worth approximately USD 2.8 billion at current market prices of TSMC shares.