TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), which supplies touchpanels for Apple Inc’s iPhones and Apple Watch, yesterday said its board had approved the sale of a 5.46 percent stake to Chinese peer O-film Tech Co (歐菲光) for NT$1.8 billion (US$59.1 million) in a bid to gain more orders by providing integrated services.
TPK has agreed to sell 20 million common shares to O-film at NT$90.5 per share via a private placing, the same as TPK shares’ closing price in Taipei trading yesterday.
The cash deal would see the Chinese company become TPK’s second-largest shareholder after company cofounder Michael Chiang (江朝瑞).
TPK said it also plans to invest as much as NT$900 million purchasing O-film shares at 40.34 yuan per share. The offering represents a 9.62 percent premium compared with O-film shares’ closing price of 36.8 yuan yesterday.
Through the investment, TPK would hold between a 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent stake in the Chinese touch panel supplier.
“The strategic cooperation is a result of industry consolidation ... TPK and O-film are complementary in terms of customers and technology,” TPK chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told a media briefing.
TPK specializes in high-end glass-based touch technology and back-end lamination capacity for glass-based and film-based touchpanels, while O-film excels in film-based touch products and has expanded into optical and fingerprint sensing technology, according to a joint statement.
“We have turned a potential competitor into a partner,” Liu said.
The deals are expected to be completed within a month of receiving the approval of Chinese regulators.
To deepen their strategic partnership, the two companies said they also plan to form a joint venture to provide clients with integrated touch solutions for automobiles, augmented and virtual-reality solutions, and smartphones.
“The partnership is not aimed at serving any specific customer,” Liu said in response to a reporter’s question about whether TPK’s biggest client, Apple, had played a role in pushing for the formation of the joint venture.
Since Apple is widely expected to equip its new iPhone with a thin-film touch sensor integrated in the OLED panel, the collaboration would help TPK get access to film-based touch sensors.
“The new joint venture will cater to customers’ needs for integrated services. Through it, we can combine O-film’s film-based sensors with TPK’s lamination capacity to make film-based touch panels,” Liu said. “This will have a positive impact on our customers.”
TPK is to hold a 49 percent stake in the joint venture, while O-film is to own the other 51 percent, Liu said.
The joint venture is expected to be formed in the next month. No financial details were disclosed.
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