The board of directors at Epistar and United Epitaxy Company (UEC) yesterday approved of the two companies merging via a share swap. The combined company under the Epistar name will aim to be the world’s largest AlGaInP (aluminum gallium indium phosphide) LED supplier, with a combined monthly output of more than one billion units, according to Epistar.
An election for a new board of directors for the new company will be concluded in March 2006, with six director seats allocated to Epistar and five occupied by UEC. Charles Chen, chairman of UEC, will be appointed as the chairman of the merged company, whereas Epistar chairman Robert Yeh will be designated as the vice chairman.
The number of MOCVD (metallo-organic chemical vapor deposition) machines will total 80 units after the merge comes into effect on December 30, 2005, Epistar said. Rider Chang, spokesperson of Epistar, stated that UEC is currently supporting part of Epistar’s epi-wafer production, which is running at full utilization.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday indicated that the new Epistar is expected to produce 300 million blue LEDs and 25 million high-luminance LEDs per month, in addition to its capacity expansion of AlGaInP LEDs. UEC’s contribution of the high-luminance LED segment will help Epistar exceed 30% in gross margins after the merger, with additional sales of NT$1 billion (US$30 million) every year, according to the paper. Unit prices of high-luminance LEDs are NT$25-28 (US$0.75-0.84) at present, the paper added.
Article translated by Jessie Shen and edited by Eric Mah
