Kyocera to acquire 100% ownership of LCD manufacturer Optrex

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Kyocera Corp has completed a share transfer agreement with three investment funds operated by Japan Industrial Partners Inc to acquire all shares of Optrex Corp — a specialized manufacturer of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and related products — in order to further strengthen and expand its LCD and touchscreen panel businesses.

Effective Feb 1, 2012, Optrex will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyocera.

Kyocera’s Corporate Thin Film Components Group develops, manufactures and markets small- and medium-sized LCDs for industrial applications worldwide. The company has been successful in establishing a business structure capable of responding to customer needs, which requires the ability to meet custom orders and to manufacture a wide range of products even in small volume.

Furthermore, since 2010 Kyocera has been expanding its capacitive touchscreen panel business and has garnered a good reputation for product quality and features such as thinness, strength and waterproof functionality for use in smartphones.

Demand for LCDs used in industrial equipment and automotive applications is expected to steadily increase; and the expanding market for capacitive touchscreen panels used in high value-added products such as smartphones and tablet computers is expected to see continued high-growth in the coming years.

Optrex has a high level of technical ability in manufacturing LCDs for automotive applications and a strong customer base both inside and outside of Japan. Kyocera expects that the acquisition will allow the company to further enhance the product lines of both its conventional industrial equipment applications and newly acquired automotive applications, and thus contribute to business expansion.

Moreover, Optrex also possesses excellent production technology for touchscreen panels, thus by effectively combining both companies’ product technologies and operating resources including customer bases, Kyocera also expects to further enhance and expand its touchscreen panel business.