Ritek Corp (錸德), the nation's leading optical-disc maker, yesterday announced that it will bring in a new investor for its subsidiary Ritdisplay Corp (錸寶) to secure the latter's leading position in the organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) market.
The new investor is Kolon Industries Inc, a South Korean top-20 private firm set up in 1957 whose fields include fiber, industrial materials and bioengineering.
Kolon will invest US$100 million to acquire an 80 percent stake in Ritdisplay, which will be turned into a new company by next April, said Ritek spokesman Eric Ai (艾元瑞).
Ritek currently holds over 70 percent of Ritdisplay's shares and will reduce its holdings to 20 percent, he said.
"Ritdisplay is losing money and we hope to regain our edge with resources from Kolon," he said.
For the first three quarters of the year, Ritek posted a loss of NT$2.99 billion (US$91 million) due to losses on reinvestments. Its loss per share was NT$1.31.
Dragged down by Ritdisplay, Ritek's non-operating losses amounted to NT$1.6 billion for the three quarters.
Ritdisplay was the world's No. 1 OLED maker and shipped 14.5 million OLEDs last year, securing a 25.9 percent market share. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co shipped 14.4 million and had a 25.8 percent share, data on Ritdisplay's Web site showed.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —