POSITIVE OUTLOOK:The company’s chairman said that he is optimistic about growth momentum of its new automotive LED applications for the European market this year

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 14, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Epistar Corp (晶電), the nation’s largest LED chipmaker, expects revenue to be flat this year, but aims to improve its profitability through continued restructuring measures, chairman Lee Biing-jye (李秉傑) said yesterday.

“We would maintain our decision to freeze 25 percent of our total production capacity throughout this year and adjust Epistar’s product portfolio to improve our profitability,” Lee told reporters on the sidelines of the Taiwan International Lighting Show at Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei.

Due to the falling average selling price (ASP) of LED lighting products and sluggish demand for backlight units used in TVs, Epistar reported a net loss of NT$3.01 billion (US$93.04 million) last year, plummeting significantly from NT$1.81 billion made a year earlier.

That represented losses per share of NT$2.81 for last year, compared with the previous year’s earnings per share of NT$1.98.

As part of its restructuring plan, Epistar last month announced a plan to reduce its production capacity by suspending the operations of two of its plants in Taiwan and China.     [FULL  STORY]