Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp’s (CMO, 奇美電子) losses ballooned to NT$33.91 billion (US$1.07 billion) as the global economic recession curtailed consumers’ electronics purchases last year, it said in a financial statement.
The annual losses for the No. 2 liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel maker in Taiwan were a five-fold increase from losses of NT$6.04 billion in 2008 that followed a price-fixing payment of NT$7.7 billion requested by the US Department of Justice. Chi Mei returned to the black in the third quarter of last year.
The losses were reported in a joint financial statement filed by Innolux Display Corp (群創光電) to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The statement came two-and-a-half months before Innolux’s plan to acquire Chi Mei and smaller panel maker TPO Display Corp (統寶光電) on March 1.
Innolux expects the acquisition will make the new entity, Chi Mei Innolux Corp, big enough to compete with the nation’s top LCD panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), and South Korean rivals LG Display Co and Samsung Electronics Inc.
Innolux expects operating income after the transaction to total NT$20.8 billion this year and to NT$35.69 billion next year.
AU Optronics may lose NT$15.72 billion this year and may swing back to annual earnings of NT$18.31 billion next year and NT$17.37 billion in 2012, Citigroup forecast.
Overall, Taiwanese flat panel display makers are expected to see revenues recover to the pre-financial crisis level of around NT$1.41 trillion this year, from the steepest decline last year, market researcher Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA, 光電科技工業協進會) said yesterday.
That would represent about 15 percent growth from an estimate of NT$1.23 trillion in revenues made this year, the Taipei-based research house forecast.
“After posting three straight quarters of growth [in revenues,] it is now clear that a recovery is beginning,” PIDA analyst Murphy Lin (林穎毅) told a media briefing.
Taiwanese panel makers’ total market share may bounce back a bit this year to 37 percent, from 36 percent last year, PIDA said. They held a 41 percent share in 2008.
China would be the next battlefield as it will replace the US as the world’s biggest LCD TV market next year, Lin said.
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