Taiwan No.1 LED chipmakers Epistar Inc. pay over NT$8.6 billion for a 47.88% stake in Huga Optotech Inc to boost strength of Taiwan’s LED industry. Epistar will acquire the Huga shareholding through stock swap, with an Epistar share for 2.23 Huga shares, and cash pay combined.

B.J. Lee, chairman of Epistar, said the collaboration is designed to beef up competitiveness of both companies in global market by co-sharing each other’s resources and co-working on advanced technologies.

Huga’s chairman, Jincai Chen, pointed out that by working with Epistar his company and Taiwan’s LED industry would get momentum.

In recent years, Epistar has built up its strength by acquiring stakes in major players including United Epitaxy Co., Ltd., Epitech Technology Corp., Tekcore Co., Ltd., Na Ya Photonics Inc., and Huga.

With these partnerships, Epistar is estimated to have as many as 296 MOCVD machines to turn out blue-chip epitaxy wafers, outnumbering the output at Cree of the United States and at Nichia of Japan.