Pou Chen forms mainland venture with K-Bridge

Taipei, April 11, 2003 (CENS)--Pou Chen Industrial Co. will cooperate with K-Bridge Electronic Co. to enter the mainland Chinese market by setting up two joint-venture plants at the Huangjiang Industrial Zone in Guangdong province.

The two sides have been in talks over the cooperation deal for several months.

The proposed two plants will make backlight panels for thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) and plastic-injection products. Mass production is scheduled to begin sometime in the second half of this year.

According to cooperation plan, the backlight panel plant will have a monthly output capacity of 200,000 panels initially and twice that amount in the near future.

Pou Chen first allied with K-Bridge in the second half of last year when the former acquired 5% stake in K-Bridge. Pou Chen is now one of K-Bridge's largest shareholders.

One of Taiwan's five largest manufacturers of backlight panels, K-Bridge set up a backlight panel plant in Wujiang, Jiangsu province last year. The company is one of the first Taiwanese manufacturers to establish a backlight panel plant in mainland China.

K-Bridge said it shipped 80,000 backlight panels from its Wujiang plant in March alone. The company expects to greatly increase output of the panels through the joint-venture plant in Huangjiang.

Pou Chen said the factory would supply backlight panels to a TFT-LCD plant in Guangdong province. The TFT-LCD plant is jointly owned by Pou Chen and Chi Mei Electronics Co.

Pou Chen has been aggressively expanding into the downstream TFT-LCD industry. Recently the company acquired a 23% stake in Pro Arch Technology Inc., a TFT-LCD affiliate of the Chi Mei Group. With the share acquisition, Pou Chen holds a 50% stake in Pro Arch.