Taiwan LED maker Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI) has entered into  the Japanese and global markets under the help of Japanese shareholder Mitsui & Co. Ltd., which is taking orders for the Taiwanese manufacturer using its shops in Japan and overseas.

As San’an Optoelectronics of mainland China is approved by Taiwan government to buy into FOREPI in a private equity placement, Mitsui's stake in FOREPI will be watered down to 12% and becomes  the No.2 shareholder of FOREPI.

According to Mitsui executives, for the time being the company has no plan to increase its holding in FOREPI although San’an’s acquisition will affect its ownership. They said San’an’s involvement will further boost FOREPI’s competitiveness in international markets.

Fengren Jian , FOREPI Chairman pointed out that San’an’s partnership will solve his company’s problem of failing to win orders from international heavyweight buyers because of insignificant production size. He estimated cooperating with the mainland Chinese LED epitaxy-wafer manufacturer would convince more LED-application suppliers to come to his company.

He forecast the company’s sales in the mainland to double to 15% of its total revenue over next few years from current 7% thanks to the partnership with San’an.

FOREPI will hold an irregular shareholder conference on Jan. 3, 2013 to vote on San’an’s acquisition of the company’s stocks.