News: LEDs
18 June 2020
Epistar and Lextar to jointly establish new holding company
Taiwan-based LED epitaxial wafer and chip manufacturer Epistar Corp and vertically integrated LED firm Lextar Electronics Corp (a subsidiary of AU Optronics) of Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan are to jointly establish a ‘holding company A’ via share conversion, as approved in meetings of the board of directors of both firms.
The share conversion ratios of the two firms are tentatively set at one share of Epistar for 0.5 ordinary shares of Company A, and one share of Lextar for 0.275 ordinary shares of Company A.
Acting as III-V semiconductor investment platform, Company A is committed to flourishing existing businesses of Epistar and Lextar and exploring advanced technologies for applications including mini/micro-LED displays, intelligent sensing and III-V microelectronics fields. While Company A should strengthen the global competitiveness of both firms, Epistar and Lextar will operate independently and there will be no impact on their respective customers and employees.
Expertise, collaboration and synergy
The intended synergies of the collaboration include the following: (1) to integrate the resources and refocus expertise of the two firms - Epistar will focus on LED upstream and midstream technology (with Lextar becoming a customer) and Lextar will concentrate in-depth on downstream technologies (with Epistar being one of its strategic suppliers); (2) to reinforce the connection between resources and product/technology development for faster commercialization, and to maximize the benefit with efficient investment and cost management, and (3) to urge the application of mini/micro-LED technology to benefit customers, partners and consumers.
Corporate governance
The daily operation of Company A will be coordinated and decided by the Steering Committee jointly established by both parties (comprising two representatives from each).
Focus, complement and optimization
Epistar’s chairman Dr B.J. Lee says that, in terms of display application, LED technology has to not only beat the competition but also widen the gap to be ahead of competing technologies in the shortest time. At this critical moment, the LED industry needs more collaboration than ever, he adds. In the future, Company A will plan overall operations to leverage the resources effectively and to develop a collaboration strategy for the industry in a macro view so that all subsidiaries of company A can evolve on this platform.
Epistar’s president Patrick Fan said that, in this collaboration, Epistar will continue to concentrate on upstream and midstream LED technology to provide better products and services while Lextar will focus on downstream products and become one of Epistar’s key customers. This will not only contribute to the overall supply chain but also accelerate application development, so that consumers can enjoy the advantage of the miniaturization of LEDs, which can improve visual the quality of displays.
Lextar’s products span the upstream, midstream and downstream of the industry, says Lextar’s chairman & CEO Dr David Su. The firm has not only expertise on each process platform but also the capability for T.E.M.P. (thermal, electrical, mechanical, photo-electrical) integration. At the same time, Lextar has the advantage of retaining downstream customers and being close to the market.
As the collaboration deepens, Epistar will become a strategic partner of Lextar’s for LED dies and Lextar will focus on the development of packaging and modular technologies to provide prompt services to worldwide customers.
