TCL on the Comeback Trail With Samsung

Chinese manufacturer TCL TV (HKEx: 1070; Shenzhen: 000100) made all the right moves today, after its disastrous purchase of the European company and the North American television Thomson few years ago. In the latest smart move for the company, in my opinion, the strongest of the major TV brands in China, TCL signed Samsung (Seoul: 005930) as a partner in its LCD plant relatively state-of-the-art Shenzhen, with Samsung a 15 percent stake in one of the other factory partners. 

As part of the package, Samsung — already the world’s top LCD maker — will also buy 2.55 million LCDs from the venture annually, or 15 percent of its output. This deal is great for TCL, not only bringing in a major new customer but also making sure the plant gets the cutting-edge technology it needs to keep up with other global leaders like LG Display (Seoul: 034220) and Chimei Innolux (Taipei: 3481). TCL already enjoys a solid reputation at home, and with this new partnership could finally start to make some serious inroads toward developing a name as a quality global brand, much the way that Samsung has done over the last 20 years.Bottom line: TCL’s LCD tie-up with Samsung will give it a major boost towards becoming China’s first global quality TV brand.

source : http://www.youngchinabiz.com/en/tcl-on-the-comeback-trail-with-samsung-tie-up/