LTC to acquire Mujin’s fab equipment business 

Electronic material supplier LTC will acquire Mujin Electronics’ fab equipment business unit, TheElec has learned.

A person familiar with the matter said the deal won’t be worth over 100 billion won.

LTC will form a co-fund with an outside investor to pay the acquisition fee, they said.

The company beat compatriot fab equipment maker SFA, which has also been attempting to buy Mujin’s business unit, for the deal, they added.

Mujin Electronics is a long-time supplier to South Korean chip giant SK Hynix.

The company specializes in cleaners and has supplied them to SK Hynix for a long time. Samsung procures its cleaners from its own subsidiary Semes.

Mujin Electronics has co-developed many of its cleaners with SK Hynix to meet the requirements of the chip giant. This means it will be very difficult for SK Hynix to fund a replacement supplier, the person said.

Mujin Electronics is likely selling the business unit as its relationship with SK Hynix has fallen through in recent years due to allegations that one of its employees has leaked technologies owned by the chip giant to a Chinese rival.

Prosecutors indicted the employees last year and the trial is ongoing.

LTC, meanwhile, was founded in 2007, and offers stripper material used in liquid crystal display production.

It is also developing photoresist used in the production of mobile OLED panels.

SK Materials had purchased convertible bonds issued by LTC over two times in 2018 and 2019 worth 10.6 billion won.

The pair had been co-developing various materials together since then; SK Materials will become the second-largest shareholder of LTC once the bonds expire in 2024.