Samsung Elec, SDI mulling organic screen JV-report

SEOUL, June 16 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and sister company Samsung SDI (006400.KS) are planning to set up a joint venture to strengthen their competitiveness in next-generation organic displays, local media reported on Monday.

The two firms are in discussions to shed their respective active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) divisions and combine them in a new company, online news provider EDaily reported, citing a senior official of the Samsung Group.

"Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI are discussing ways to form a separate entity for OLED," the unnamed official was quoted as saying. "The outlines of the plan should be available at the end of this month or early next month."

Spokesmen for Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI were unable to comment on the report immediately.

EDaily also reported that the two companies were discussing ways to boost Samsung SDI's plasma display panel (PDP) business, which has been suffering from stiff competition from liquid crystal display (LCD) makers.

Samsung SDI is betting on super thin AM-OLED screens as future growth drivers as they produce brighter images and use less power. The profitability of the technology, however, has so far remained poor.

(Reporting by Marie-France Han, editing by Jonathan Hopfner)