Sharp, Sony ink LCD joint venture

Sharp Corp. and Sony Corp. have entered into an agreement to establish a joint venture company to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.

Sharp last month split out its new LCD panel plant located in Sakai City and transferred it to Sharp Display Products Corp. (SDP), its wholly-owned subsidiary. SDP is scheduled to commence operations in October 2009. On Dec. 29, 2009, as the first step toward the final investment ratio (66 percent by Sharp and 34 percent by Sony), Sony will invest 10 billion yen (about $105.90 million) into SDP in exchange for new shares to be issued by SDP to Sony as third-party allocation. As a result of this transaction, SDP will become a joint venture company of Sharp and Sony on the same day.

The joint venture agreement further provides that Sony will make a number of additional capital injections to SDP subject to conditions set forth in agreement.

SDP will seek to maximize the advantages gained from using the world's first 10th generation glass substrates to produce large-sized LCD panels and modules that deliver high levels of quality, cost and performance.