lcd panel venture for sale

TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Sony Corp has agreed to sell its nearly 50 percent stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, as it struggles to reduce huge losses at its TV business.

The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15 percent in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays.

In November, Sony, the world’s third largest flat panel TV maker, warned of a fourth straight year of net losses for the financial year to next March, with its TV unit alone set to lose $2.2 billion on tumbling demand and a surging yen.

Some analysts say the $100 billion LCD TV market peaked last year and forecast it will shrink 3 to 4 percent annually, as consumers in advanced countries have already traded in their bulky cathode-ray tube TV sets for flat screens, while the LCD market has been in a glut since last summer.

In November, Sony cut its TV unit sales forecast for the second time this year and dropped a plan to boost its TV sales to 40 million sets a year in the fiscal year ending March 2013, effectively conceding defeat to Samsung, the world’s largest flat-panel TV maker.

Sony said in April it would not raise its stake in a separate LCD venture with Sharp Corp for at least a year, and in August said it would merge its loss-making small-panel business with the government-backed Japan Display.

In October, it signaled a stepped-up push into the smartphone market by announcing it would take control of its mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson for $1.5 billion.

Oct 22 (Reuters) - Specialty glass maker Corning Inc said it would buy out Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s stake in their LCD panel joint venture, resulting in the South Korean company taking a 7.4 percent shareholding in Corning.

Sharp Corporation ("Sharp") and Sony Corporation ("Sony") today announced that their joint venture relationship to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules will terminate, and that Sony will sell its shares (representing 7.04% of the issued shares) in Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP") to SDP*. In consideration for the sale of shares, Sony will receive cash consideration equal to its original investment of 10 billion yen to be paid by SDP*. Both the sale of shares and the payment of cash consideration will be completed by the end of June 2012.

On July 1, 2009, Sharp transferred its LCD panel plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, to SDP, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp. On December 29, 2009, Sony invested 10 billion yen into SDP in exchange for new shares issued by SDP to Sony (representing 7.04% of the issued shares of SDP) and, as a result, SDP became a joint venture company of Sharp and Sony as of the same date. In light of the rapidly changing market for LCD panels and LCD televisions, in March 2012 Sharp and Sony agreed to amend the original joint venture agreement to provide that Sony would not make additional capital injections in SDP. Based on this amendment, the companies agreed to study studied the future direction of the joint venture and other potential business relationships between the parties, including with respect to Sony"s interest in SDP.

Sony said Monday it will sell off its entire stake in an LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing joint venture with Samsung Electronics for 1.08 trillion won (US$934 million).

The two companies signed a contract under which Samsung will turn the company, S-LCD, into a fully-owned subsidiary that will still provide panels for Sony televisions. The Korean-based LCD manufacturer was established in April of 2004, with Sony holding just below a 50 percent share.

“This deal will allow Sony to acquire LCD panels from Samsung Electronics in a stable way based on market prices, without the responsibility or costs that come with operating a factory,” Sony said in a press release.

Like domestic peers, Sony has long struggled to make its TV business profitable against foreign rivals like Samsung and Vizio in the U.S., but executives have repeatedly said they won’t abandon the product. The firm’s latest plan calls for a focus on profitability over the number of units sold, and shifting to acquiring panels from outside manufacturers.

The iconic Japanese company has said it is focused on a “four-screen strategy,” which aims to offer content and interconnect smartphones, laptops, tablets, and televisions. It announced in October it would acquire Ericsson’s 50 percent stake in their Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture, allowing it to better integrate smartphones into its overall product lineup.

Panasonic said Tuesday it will sell one of its main domestic TV panel factories to a new joint venture focused on producing smaller screens, as Japan"s big-name manufacturers continue to seek relief from deep losses in their display businesses.

Japan Display, the new venture that will acquire the factory, will be comprised of the small display subsidiaries of Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba, backed by a US$2.6 billion investment from a government-funded investment firm, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). The companies said Tuesday they had finalized plans to launch the new company in Spring of next year, as earlier announced.

Panasonic said it will sell its LCD TV factory located in Chiba, east of Tokyo to Japan Display for an undisclosed sum. INCJ said the new venture will build a new production line for small displays at the factory, it said Tuesday.

Japan"s prominent electronics companies are struggling to revive their TV and panel businesses, under pressure from recent record highs in the yen and foreign competition from rivals like Samsung and Vizio. Sony said earlier this month it now expects over a billion-dollar loss for the current fiscal year, after early predicting a profit, due in large part to its television woes.

With panels largely commoditized, domestic manufacturers have attempted to increase profits through technologies that offer glasses-free 3D and super high resolution, but have had little success so far.

Sharp is revamping some of its large-screen TV lines to make smaller panels for phones and tablets, a transformation similar to that planned at the Panasonic plant, although Sharp is making its changes internally.

The move will make S-LCD Corp., founded in 2004, a wholly owned subsidy of Samsung and help Sony withdraw from a venture that has given it eight years of losses.

S-LCD will provide LCD panels for Sony products via a ‘long-term supply agreement of LCD panels, as agreed by the two companies,’ Samsung said in a statement.

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Sony Corp. (6758.TO) said Thursday it will pull out of its liquid crystal display joint venture with Sharp Corp. (6753.TO) by selling its entire stake in Sharp Display Products Corp., less than three years after its state-of-the-art factory opened.

Separately, Sharp said SDP will merge its business operations with the LCD color filter businesses of two Japanese partners--Toppan Printing Co. (7911.TO) and Dai Nippon Printing Co. (7912.TO) in what will bring Sharp"s stake in the LCD business down to the same percentage as Taiwan"s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317.TW).

In return for selling the stock in the joint venture, whose Sakai factory in western Japan only opened in October 2009, Sony will receive Y10 billion--the same amount it spent at the time of the initial investment. The payment is due by the end of June.

The Nikkei reported that Sharp will provide advanced technology for producing liquid-crystal display panels to Hon Hai for the latter"s new plant in China, kicking off joint business operations between the two companies in line with their recent capital alliance.

In March, Sharp said it sold a 10% stake to Hon Hai and its affiliate companies, collectively known as Foxconn, in exchange for about $800 million in cash to help shore up its core business of LCD panels for televisions--an operation largely responsible for the multibillion-dollar losses Sharp expects to post this fiscal year.

The company said it would report a further write-down of 66 billion yen, or about $845 million, for the final three months of 2011 because of its exit from the Samsung joint venture. But it expected to cut costs in its LCD business by 50 billion yen a year as a result of the departure, Sony said.

Sony “aims to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung, based on market prices and without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility,” it said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics, the world leader in flat-panel televisions, would gain freer rein in producing its next-generation displays by taking control of S-LCD. Samsung said in a regulatory filing that its board had approved the plan Monday.

As liquid crystal display technology grows in importance for flat TV screens, the panel and TV makers have been making major shifts in strategy and forming new alliances.

Signs that rivals Sony and Sharp, who both make flat TV screens, would be cooperating emerged at the weekend, when a source told Reuters that Sony planned to start buying TV-use LCD panels from Sharp.

Global demand for LCD TVs is expected to more than double to 155 million units by 2012, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association said on Thursday.

In a further sign of realignment in the industry, U.S. fund Carlylewill buy a majority stake in an LCD glass maker in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion including debt, the Nikkei said on Tuesday.

The venture, called NH Techno Glass, is held 50 percent by Nippon Sheet Glassand 50 percent by Hoya. Carlyle will buy all of Nippon Sheet Glass"s stake and part of Hoya"s holding, although Hoya will retain most of the stake, it said.

In other recent industry moves, Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial, which had until recently invested aggressively in only plasma display technology, said earlier this month it would spend 300 billion yen to build an LCD panel plant by 2010.

Sharp Corporation ("Sharp") and Sony Corporation ("Sony") today announced that they have entered into an amendment to their agreement (the "JV Agreement") executed in July 2009 to establish Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP"), a joint venture, to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.

On July 1, 2009, Sharp transferred its LCD panel plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, to SDP. On December 29, 2009, Sony invested 10 billion yen into SDP in exchange for new shares issued by SDP to Sony (at which time Sony owned 7.04% of the shares in SDP) and, as a result, SDP became a joint venture company of Sharp and Sony on that date. Sony has made no further investment to date.

Sharp Corporation ("Sharp") and Sony Corporation ("Sony") announced that they have agreed to further amend the joint venture agreement originally executed by the parties in July 2009, as amended in April 2011, for the establishment and operation of Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP"), a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.

Pursuant to the April 2011 amendment, Sharp and Sony discussed possible further contributions by Sony to SDP, but they have agreed that Sony will not make additional capital injections to SDP. The parties have also agreed to set a new time period, up to the end of September 2012, to permit study of the future direction of the joint venture, including with respect to the treatment of the shares that Sony has in SDP (7.04% of all issued shares) and possible purchases of large-sized LCD panels and modules. Under the March 2012 amendment, Sony may require that Sharp acquire all of Sony"s shares in SDP, even before the end of September 2012, upon the occurrence of certain events such as a transfer by Sharp to any third party of some or all of the shares that Sharp has in SDP.

On July 1, 2009, Sharp transferred its LCD panel plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, to SDP. On December 29, 2009, Sony invested 10 billion yen into SDP in exchange for new shares issued by SDP to Sony (representing 7.04% of the issued shares in SDP) and, as a result, SDP became a joint venture company of Sharp and Sony. Since then, Sharp and Sony have continued discussion about possible further contributions by Sony to SDP.

TOKYO | Japan"s Sony and South Korean rival Samsung are dissolving their joint venture in liquid crystal display panels as Sony tries to stanch years of losses in its TV business.

Samsung Electronics Co. will buy all of Sony"s shares in the joint venture for about 1.08 trillion Korean won ($935 million) subject to a final agreement, Sony Corp. said Monday.

The joint venture called S-LCD was set up in 2004. Sony, which fell behind in flat panel TVs, invested in a Samsung panel factory to ensure a steady supply of panels for its LCD TVs.

Sony said it will suffer a loss of 66 billion yen ($846 million) for the third quarter of this fiscal year, which ends later this month, because of the declining value of investment in S-LCD.

TOKYO - In a bid to streamline its money-losing television business, Sony said Monday it would sell its stake in its flat-panel joint venture with Samsung Electronics, letting go of more of its production capacity at a time when outsourcing has become the norm in the world of manufacturing.

Sony, the Tokyo-based technology and entertainment giant, which makes the Bravia liquid-crystal display televisions, said in a statement that it would sell its nearly 50 percent stake in the jointly owned manufacturer, S-LCD, to Samsung of South Korea for $939 million.

Sony"s exit from the joint venture, set up in Tanjeong, South Korea, in 2004, would allow it to switch to less expensive outsourcing options that might allow it to resuscitate its struggling TV business. The only other LCD panels Sony manufactures are at its joint venture with Sharp, in which Sony owns a 7 percent stake.

Asahi Glass Co, the world"s second-largest supplier of glass used in liquid-crystal displays (LCD), and Mitsubishi Electric Corp said they will sell their stakes in an unprofitable LCD panel venture.

Asahi Glass will sell 60 percent of Optrex Corp, which makes and sells panels for mobile phones and car navigation systems, and Mitsubishi Electric will sell its 40 percent holding, the companies said yesterday in separate press releases.

Asahi Glass, based in Tokyo, will concentrate on the production of flat glass and glass substrates for LCD and plasma panels. Asahi Glass, which expects a one-time loss of about ¥3.8 billion from the sale, already factored in the impact on its profit forecast for the year to Dec. 31.