OLED FMM firm Poongwon aims to go public

Poongwon Precision is aiming to list on KOSDAQ this year, TheElec has learned.

The company is also aiming to supply its fine metal mask (FMM) for OLED within the year, people familiar with the matter said.

FMM is used to deposit organic material, during the production of OLED.

In February, Poongwon was one of the companies to win the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s project to develop FMM. The company will be developing a non-etching method to manufacture FMM.

The company beat Olum Materials to win the order.

The worldwide FMM market is dominated by Japan’s Dai Nippon Printing (DNP). DNP uses the etching method of production for its FMM.

Japan’s Hitachi Metal is also the exclusive supplier of invar used to manufacture FMM.

Poongwon is aiming for sales of 50 billion won this year, which will be over 30% of its sales in 2020. It is aiming for an operating margin of 5% __ much more than the 1% in 2019 and 2020.

The company’s current mainstay is open metal mask (OMM), which is also used in OLED production.

It supplies its products to LG Display and Samsung Display. LG Display was its sole customer for OMM until it began supplying them to Samsung Display in the later half of 2019. Saewoo supplies more OMM to Samsung Display compared to Poongwon.

Pim, another OMM maker, supplies most of its goods to a Chinese display panel maker.

Poongwon is aiming to list on KOSDAQ using a new rule for tech firms that allows for fast-tracking of the process with less stringent evaluation standard.