The creditor banks for Chi Mei Lighting Technology Corporation are demanding the company’s shareholder groups like Innolux Corportation and Chi Mei Corporation to repay the company’s debt. However, Innolux Corportation’s response was that the responsibility for resolving the debt was solely that of the creditor banks and that all Chi Mei employees are welcome to work at Innolux. Chi Mei Corp only expressed regret over the situation.    

Chi Mei Lighting Technology Corp has a debt of NT$5.6 billion. Creditor banks for the company include Bank of Taiwan, Mega International Commercial Bank, Shin Kong Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Bank COTA Commercial Bank, and more.

Way before the merger of Chi Mei Corp and Innolux Corp, LED chip manufacturer Chi Mei Technology Corp was established in 2006. Before the big financial crisis in 2007, the panel technology industry was doing well, including a growing demand for LED panel backlight modules. However, afterwards the panel industry cooled down, putting Chi Mei Lighting into debt crisis. After the merger with Innolux, Chi Mei strived to better the financial balance of the company. Although the company was able to turn itself around 1Q of this year, it still was not able to overcome the deficit and ultimately went out of business.   

Innolux Corp and Chi Mei Corp own a combined 60% stake in Chi Mei Lighting, 33.9% of which belongs to Innolux.

With Innolux Corp and Chi Mei Corp strictly seeing themselves as shareholders with no part of the company’s management, they believe that the creditor banks should use Chi Mei Lighting’s assets to resolve the outstanding loans. The banks fear their only solution is to either find a buyer for Chi Mei Lighting or auction off the company’s assets.