Japan Display Inc is set to receive a $100 million investment from Apple Inc, its biggest customer, the Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday, sending the screen maker’s shares up as much as 32% in Tokyo.
Japan Display is facing a funding crunch due to Apple’s recent shift away from liquid-crystal displays (LCD) and disappointing sales of the iPhone XR, the only LCD model in Apple’s 2018 line-up. Apple accounts for 60% of Japan Display’s revenue.
Japan Display’s shares were up 18% at the close of morning trade in Tokyo, on track for their best day since May.
Tsuneo Sasai for The Asahi Shimbun:
The investment of $100 million comes on top of about 100 billion yen that JDI is borrowing from Apple.
The two companies agreed in May to extend JDI’s repayment period by halving the Tokyo-based company’s payments for each quarter.
JDI, which started operations in 2012 by combining the LCD businesses of Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., intends to restructure its management through the support from Apple, the sources said.
Apple now plans to make the investment through Harvest Group, a major Chinese investment firm that was another partner in the bailout plan.
Harvest and a Hong Kong investment fund, Oasis Management Co., are also considering investing a total of 58.2 billion yen in JDI. The two companies indicated that they would complete the procedures necessary for the investment by June 27.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, Japan Display catches this lifeline!
Japan Display is slowly going out of business, wake up Apple…..