News

15 March 2010

 

LED chip-maker Tekcore raising capital to fund MOCVD purchases

Driven by surging demand for high-brightness (HB) LEDs for LCD TV backlighting, Taiwan-based LED chipmaker Tekcore plans to issue 100 million new shares through a private placement that could raise NT$3bn (US$94.4m) to fund the purchase of new metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors, reports Digitimes. Tekcore says that it aims to boost its number of MOCVD reactors from 27 at the end of 2009 to 37–38 by the end of second-quarter 2010.

Currently, epiwafer and LED chip maker Epistar is the biggest shareholder in Tekcore with a 19.3% stake, while LED packaging house Everlight Electronics has a 9.9% stake.

Although down 10.06% sequentially from NT$147.6m in January, Tekcore reported revenue of NT$132.75m in February, up 93% on NT$68.76m a year ago. Revenues for January–February totaled NT$280.36m, up 156% year-on-year.

In March, revenue is expected to rise more than 20% sequentially to NT$160m amid increasing demand for HB-LEDs used in backlights for large-size panels and general lighting. In second-half 2010, monthly revenue is expected to reach NT$250m, and revenues for the whole year should grow 50–60% on 2009, Tekcore added.

Although Tekcore reported a net loss of NT$160m in 2009, the net loss of NT$227m for the first three quarters was counter-balanced by a net profit of NT$60m for fourth-quarter 2009. Also, despite a sequential drop in revenue of about 3% in first-quarter 2010, the firm expects to record a profit.

See related items:

Taiwan’s Epistar entering mainland China LED manufacturing

LED shortage looms in 2010

HB-LEDs to drive doubling of MOCVD sales to 415 systems in 2011

Search: Tekcore HB-LEDs LCD TV backlighting MOCVD

Visit: www.tekcore.com.tw

Visit: www.digitimes.com/news/a20100315PD211.html