Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said company president Wang Jyh-chao (王志超) is to step down from his post, amid speculation that he is to play a greater role in parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) latest push into LCD panel manufacturing in China.
As part of Innolux’s management shuffle, the board of directors yesterday also approved the promotion of executive vice president Robert Shiao (蕭志弘) to succeed Wang.
Wang is to stay on as chairman, while Shiao will work as chief operating officer to help Innolux accelerate its global expansion, the Miaoli-based flat-panel maker said in a statement.
The personnel adjustment was to bolster the firm’s corporate governance practices, as well as cope with expansion of Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海集團), according to the statement.
Hon Hai Precision is the flagship unit of the group. Innolux did not elaborate on Wang’s revised role.
The company also did not comment on recent speculation that Wang was tapped to help Hon Hai build a newly announced 10.5G LCD plant in Guangzhou, China.
Early this month, Sakai Display Products Corp (SDP) — in which Sharp Corp and Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) holds a stake — held a groundbreaking ceremony for a 61 billion yuan (US$882.6 million) project to develop a display compound that consists of a 10.5G LCD panel plant and a ultra-high-resolution 8K TV plant.
The 10.5G LCD plant, jointly invested in by SDP and the Guangzhou Provincial Government, is to produce 65-inch and 75-inch TV panels when it starts operations in 2019.
“Hon Hai needs to seek help from LCD veterans to build and manage the advanced 10.5G LCD plant in Guangzhou, as well as sell the panels it produces,” TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) LCD industry senior analyst Eric Chiou (邱宇彬) said on the telephone.
“Wang is likely to be involved in the broader LCD panel projects of the group, but it is more probable that Wang will play the role as a bridge between Innolux and Sharp in managing capacity allocation, or give a hand to market Sharp-brand TVs in different regions, such as China,” Chiou said.
Innolux makes 65-inch and 39.5-inch TV panels at its 6G and 7.5G plants, a complementary panel offering to Sharp, Chiou said.
With no major capacity expansion plans in recent years, Innolux has been working on enhancing its manufacturing efficiency and profitability by introducing automation systems, of which Shiao has been in charge, according to the company.
Innolux shares yesterday remained unchanged at NT$12.15 in Taipei trading, while the TAIEX dropped 0.04 percent.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
EXPANDING: The European Commission has contributed 5 billion euros in state aid to TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it has received a total of NT$62.5 billion (US$1.95 billion) in subsidies from China and Japan since 2022. In the first half of this year, TSMC received NT$7.96 billion in subsidies from China and Japan after receiving about NT$47.55 billion last year and obtaining NT$7.05 billion in 2022, financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed. The company, which makes about 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors, said the subsidies were used to finance its investments in Kumamoto, Japan, and Nanjing, China. TSMC owns a 12-inch wafer fab in
STRATEGIC SHIFT: Diversifying away from the volatile flat-panel industry, AUO aims to boost sales contribution from non-panel business to half of total revenue by 2027 AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it has agreed to sell its idled manufacturing facility and land in Tainan to Micron Technology Inc for NT$7.4 billion (US$231.8 million) as the company shifts strategy to reduce the impact from the boom-and-bust flat-panel display industry. The company expects to book NT$4.17 billion in disposal gains from the sale, it said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The Tainan factory produced color filters used in monitors, notebook computers and flat-panel TVs before being shut down last year, as AUO sought to optimize its asset utilization. The company has been striving to diversify and broaden its business
Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron