LG Display draws interest in China plant sale – newspaper

SEOUL : Around four parties have shown interest in buying South Korean display panel maker LG Display’s Guangzhou, China plant including Chinese rivals BOE and CSOT, a South Korean newspaper reported on Tuesday.

LG Display has received letters of intent (LOI) for the sale of the liquid crystal display (LCD) plant from four to five parties, including BOE Technology Group, TCL’s LCD unit CSOT as well as financial investors, newspaper Korea Economic Daily reported, citing unnamed investment banking sources.

The sale price is expected to be around 1.5 trillion won ($1.12 billion) or higher, and LG Display is expected to select a bidder during the first half of this year at the earliest, the newspaper reported.

LG Display declined comment. BOE and CSOT did not have an immediate comment.

Analysts have said LG Display is planning to sell the plant as part of its efforts to taper off its lower-margin and high-competition LCD business, and focus on growing its small-to-midsized organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel business.

($1 = 1,334.4800 won)