Kyocera declared that its share transfer agreement with Japan Industrial Partners based- three investment funds has been concluded, which intends to additionally expand and establish its LCD and touch screen panel businesses by acquiring all the possessions of Optrex, an expert producer of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and associated products. Optrex will be converted into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kyocera from February 1, 2012.
LCDs of all sizes for global industrial applications will be produced, engineered, designed and supplied by Kyocera's Corporate Thin Film Components Group. The company has been fortunate in setting up a business structure, which is proficient to cater to the various needs of customers, for which the company has to be capable of furnishing custom orders and to manufacture an extensive variety of products even in less volume. In addition, Kyocera has been developing its capacitive touchscreen panel business since 2010, renowned for its significant features and product quality including strength, flexibility, and waterproof operation, which is to be exercised in smartphones.
Market demand for LCDs in automotive applications and industrial equipment is predicted to increase steadily and the market expansion of capacitive touchscreen panels used in improved products including tablet computers and smartphones is anticipated to progress in the forthcoming years.
Regarding production of LCDs for automotive applications, Optrex possesses a high level of technical potentiality, provided with consistent support from its customers from Japan and overseas. Kyocera expects that the acquisition will promote business expansion as the company expands the product lines of its traditional industrial equipment applications along with its recently acquired automotive applications. In addition, the company specializes in exceptional production technology for touchscreen panels by integrating the operating resources and technologies with customer bases. Kyocera focuses to develop its LCD and touchscreen panel business through this acquisition.