Japan Display Secures ~$0.92 Billion Bailout from Japan’s Ichigo
by Anton Shilov on February 5, 2020 10:45 AM EST
In recent weeks, Japan Display Inc. (JDI), which absorbed LCD production of Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba in 2011, has been losing money, has most of its business with Apple. Sales have been dropping of late, to the point of putting the company in jeopardy. Late last week JDI inked a deal to get up to ¥100.8 billion JPY (USD$918.87 million) from Ichigo Asset Management, a Japanese investment company. To that end, the company terminated its memorandum of understanding with Suva Investment Holdings, a group of investors from China and Taiwan, it signed last year to get $715 million.
Under the terms of the deal, Ichigo will invest in Japan Display in and will eventually gain control of the company. The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), which currently controls JDI, will lose control but will retain a stake in the company. Stakes of other investors of JDI will get lower.
Japan Display, which absorbed LCD production of Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba in 2011, has been losing money for years because until recently it only offered IPS LCD display panels and therefore had to compete against numerous companies from China with lower costs. To make the matters worse, JDI earned over 60% of its revenue selling displays panels to one customer, Apple. JDI’s sales dropped from ¥884.440 million in FY2017 to ¥636.661 million in FY2019. JDI’s OLED division, JOLED, yet has to become a viable player on the market. At present, JOLED’s screens are only used by Apple’s Watch, whereas OLED screens for iPhones are supplied by other companies. To date, JDI owes Apple more than $800 million.
Last year INCJ signed a memorandum of understanding to sell 49.82% of Japan Display for $715 million to Suwa Investment Holdings LLC, a conglomerate of investors consisting of China’s Silk Road Fund and Harvest Tech Investment Management, Taiwan’s TPK Holdings, and Fubon Financial Holdings. Under the terms of the new deal, JDI will get more money, whereas INCJ will retain a higher stake in the company.
Related Reading
- Chinese and Taiwanese Companies To Gain Controlling Stake of JDI
- Japan Display Develops 1.6-Inch Micro LED Display Module: 265 PPI & 3,000 Nits
- Japan Display Develops VRM-100 VR Headset with 3DOF for Business Users
Sources: Japan Display, Reuters
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Ushio01 - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
'In recent weeks, Japan Display Inc. (JDI), which absorbed LCD production of Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba in 2011, has been losing money, has most of its business with Apple. Sales have been dropping of late, to the point of putting the company in jeopardy.'Someone get this article a proof-reader stat!
Dragonstongue - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
mehhh nitpicking, for the average reader, I am sure it is "understood well enough"At least is very through article describing all the parts used, cost and such.
Kudos on the article in question
(^.^)
I digress, if Corsair wants to consider themselves the "most premium so now we get to charge arm and a leg" than the various parts overall should be night and day superior to what everyone else offers, not moderately better for a pretty hefty uplift in pricing.
Kind of reminds me of what Coolermaster did/was doing rebranding much of their older stuff to their "modern" naming, such as the Hyper line to Master line, not all of the master line stuff was all that much "superior" in some cases actually worse overall for the price point.
See, stuff like that deserves hefty nitpicking :p
Operandi - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Idk, this one is a pretty poor example of how to write. Structurally its pretty much a disaster, we're well past nitpicking in my opinion. Writing is your profession; try harder.nicolaim - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
+1futrtrubl - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
+2ksec - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Sigh, Another Japanese Investment ? They still haven't learned or figure out why they are losing or not competing.PaulHoule - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Smells like strawberries to me.mukiex - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜) AYYYYYYvalinor89 - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
Can someone explain to me how a producer can end up owing money to a consumer?"To date, JDI owes Apple more than $800 million."
Is this like the case with that sapphire cristal company (GT Advanced Technologies) and Apple where the later basically funded the new factory of the first with loans but ended up not using the product when the product was not all they wanted and basically drove the first to bankrupcy?
alevan - Wednesday, February 5, 2020 - link
"Japan Display owes Apple more than $800 million for the $1.5 billion cost of building the plant four years ago."From CNBC. Apple funded them to build a factory.