Financial - Page 11

JOLED (Japan OLED) was established in August 2014 by Japan Display, Sony and Panasonic with an aim to become an OLED medium display producer. Following years of R&D and initial production, the company initiated mass production of its OLEDIO panels in 2021 at its new 5.5-Gen production line in Nomi, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

JOLED's panels appeared on the market, but only for high-end applications such as LG's professional monitor range. According to a new report from Korea, the company did not manage to find a new investor and is now on the verge of bankruptcy.

Universal Display reported its latest financial results, for Q2 2022, with revenues of $136.6 million, an operating profit of $53.3 million and a net income of $41.5 million. These results were less than expected by analysts. The company ended the quarter with $834 million in cash and equivalents.

UDC's 2021 revenues were a record high of $554 million, with a net profit of $184 million. UDC expects the OLED industry to continue to grow in 2022, and the company believes its revenues in 2022 will be between $625 million to $650 million (an increase of 12% - 17%).

Samsung Electronics reported its financial results for Q2 2022, with record second-quarter revenues of 77.2 trillion Won ($59 billion USD).

Samsung Display reported record second-quarter revenue and operating profit for mobile displays driven by solid demand from major customers. Samsung specifically mentions the growth in its laptop OLED business. Performance in the large panel business was weaker due to initial ramp-up costs of Samsung's QD-OLED displays, and a decline in LCD prices.

LG Display announced its financial results for Q2 2022, with a net loss of around $290 million (down from a profit of around $320 million a year ago) as the company's sales dropped 14.6%.

LGD says that the loss was due to weak demand for TV and IT displays, coupled with supply chain issues and the lockdowns in China. LGD says it plans to continue and reduce its LCD TV business, and to stop LCD production in Korea in 2023, earlier than expected before. The company will focus instead on OLED TV panels and the automotive market, and will aim to open up new markets for transparent and gaming OLEDs.

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin announced its preliminary financial results for the 2nd quarter of 2022. The company says it expects revenues to grow 11-14% compared to Q2 2022, to reach $7 to $7.2 million.

eMagin says that its strong performance was due to strength in its military business, as well as increased demand from medical companies. The strong sales were partially offset by a decrease in contract revenues. As of June 30, 2022, the Company’s backlog of open orders was $14.3 million, including $12.8 million of orders that were shippable within 12 months.

According to reports, Samsung Display acquired OLED material developer Cynora, for about $300 million. Samsung acquires just the IP and technology, and Cynora terminated its entire workforce a couple of weeks ago. Samsung is already an investor in Cynora, and so is LGD.

Cynora has been low on cash (its last financing round was in 2019), according to reports, and did not manage to find new investors, and so the company opted to be sold to Samsung. The reported sum seems to be rather high for an emergency exit, and some later reports quotes much lower sums, perhaps even around $30 million or so.

OLED microdisplay developer BCDTEK is embarking on a new project to construct a 12-inch OLED microdisplay production site in Huainan, China. The new fab will have a production capacity of 20,000 monthly substrates.

The total investment in this new fab will reach 6.5 billion yuan (around $970 million USD), with the first phase (4,000 substrates per month) estimated at $210 million USD (1.5 billion Yuan). The company has raised funds from China Micro Semiconductor and Shanghai Wusheng Electronics. 

OLED microdisplay maker eMagin has been awarded a $2.5 million US Army contract towards a high-brightness, full-color direct-emission OLED microdisplay prototype project. The project includes the development of manufacturing process technologies

The prototype that eMagin will develop will be used in AR systems that provide both sensor and tactical data to soldiers.

LG Display announced that it has raised $1 billion in long-term loans from international banks, that will be invested in expanding its OLED module production line in Vietnam.

In September 2021 LGD announced it is set to expand its Hai Phong fab capacity to 13-14 million monthly units, in a $1.4 billion investment. It's not clear whether the new funds are an addition to that, or is this the funding for the 2021 announcement.

UBI Research says that the OLED emitter material market reached $421 million in Q1 2022, down 21.1% from the previous quarter, but up 9% compared to Q1 2021. UBI estimates that the OLED emitter material market will reach $1.77 billion in 2022, and will grow to $2.4 billion by 2026.

UBI says that sale of materials for TV and mobile devices decreased (compared to Q4 2021) while sales of materials for the production of IT (laptops, tablets and monitors) displays were up $6.6 million.