Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s No. 2 liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel maker, said yesterday it hoped to close a three-way merger with panel makers Innolux Display Corp (群創光電) and TPO Displays Corp (統寶光電) in March, one month earlier than scheduled.
The share-swap merger came amid the LCD panel industry’s rapid recovery from last year’s slump as consumers resume spending on electronics because of the improving global economy, led mostly by Asian countries like China.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics chairman Frank Liao (廖錦祥) told shareholders that the merger would have a synergistic effect in terms of capacity, capital, customers and raw material suppliers. Liao said the three companies were complementary to each other in terms of flat-panel manufacturing technologies. Early integration would maximize the effect, he said.
The three companies said in November they planned to wrap up the merger on April 30 to expand operation scale and enhance competitiveness.
Innolux said at the time that it would issue 2.95 billion common shares to Chi Mei Optoelectronics and 528 million to TPO Displays. The resultant company will be named Chimei Innolux Corp.
Shareholders of Innolux and TPO yesterday gave their go-ahead to the plan, which will create the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, unseating AU Optronics Corp (友達光電).
The companies yesterday also gave positive forecasts for the LCD industry. Innolux chairman Tuan Hsing-chien (段行建) said demand was better than he had expected last month and that inventory was healthy.
Ray Chen (陳瑞聰), chairman of TPO and president of the world’s No. 2 notebook computer contract maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), told reporters that no slack season was expected this year.
The positive outlook is reflected in plans to hike prices aggressively for PC monitor and TV panels in the first half of this month as demand looks stronger than expected, market researcher DisplaySearch said in a report released on Tuesday.
“TV brands are continuing to stock more panels for the sales planned for the next one to two months, especially since the demand from China TV brands remains firm in January, which shifts power to the panel sell-side,” DisplaySearch said in the report.
The price for mainstay 19-inch PC monitor panels rose 2.7 percent, or US$2, to US$77 per unit for the first two weeks of this month from the previous two weeks, the report showed. Prices for 32-inch TV panels may climb nearly 1 percent to US$205 per unit, it said.
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