LG Display cuts vendors’ stakes, axes jobs for turnaround

LG Display Co., the world’s top manufacturer of large-size organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, reduced stakes in its vendors while cutting jobs as part of its restructuring for turnaround.

LG Display reduced its stakes in Kosdaq-listed contractors such as YAS Co., Avatec Co. and Wooree E&L Co. this month, according to their filings to a local financial regulator on Tuesday. The supplier for Apple iPhones had been their second-largest shareholder for more than a decade since it increased stakes in those companies in 2009-2011.

The display maker of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate LG Group sold 250,000 shares of Avatec for 4.1 billion won ($3 million) to cut its stake in the manufacturer of liquid-crystal display (LCD) glasses, display filters and indium tin oxide coating products to 9.63% from the previous 11.23% during an after-hour trading session on July 19.

LG Display also unloaded 1.3 million shares of Wooree during the session to lower its stake in the light-emitting diode (LED) packaging technology company to 7.34% from 9.87%.

LG Display shed 455,000 shares of YAS during the regular trading hours on July 17-22 to reduce its stake in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) post-processing technology developer to 9.83% from 13.13%.

The panel manufacturer on July 5 sold 286,000 shares of YAS for 2.4 billion won, 247,000 shares of Avatec for 3.4 billion won and 1.7 million shares of Wooree for 1.4 billion won, respectively.

JOB CUTS

In addition to those stake sales, LG Display last month unveiled an additional voluntary redundancy plan for manufacturing staff aged 28 or older, wider than the existing retirement program for employees aged 35 or older.

The company last December launched such a scheme for staff aged 40 or older.

LG Display was forecast to narrow its operating loss to 350 billion won this year from the deficit of 2.5 trillion won in 2023 thanks to such restructuring measures amid a recovery in the global OLED sector, industry sources said.

“The company is likely to turn to the black next year for the first time in four years, given the further recovery in the sector and the restructuring’s impact,” said one of the sources.

Write to Eui-Myung Park at uimyung@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.