Sales of Ledman COB-based UHD Products Soared 210% in 2019

  According to the 2019 annual report released by Ledman (300162.SZ) on the evening of April 24, the company achieved a revenue of 967 million yuan last year, up 31.82% year-on-year, and a net profit attributable to common shareholders of listed companies of 40.41 million yuan, up 210.77% year-on-year, indicating both the company’s revenue and net profit have hit record highs since the company went public.

In 2019, influenced by the global economic downturn and the trade friction between the United States and China, the overall growth of the LED market slowed down and industry competition became more intense. However, the emergence of new technologies and products such as Mini/MicroLED has created more incremental market opportunities for the LED display industry, and China’s new display industry is ushering in an unprecedented golden period of development. The explosive growth in Ledman’s revenue and net profit is remarkable given such a complex external environment.

Sales of COB HD Products Soar 354%

Ledman attributes the company’s revenue growth in 2019 to three aspects: first, it enhanced the promotion of the industry-leading Micro LED UHD intelligent display products based on COB’s advanced integrated packaging technology and accelerated the expansion into markets of security, monitoring, command center, education, etc., so the revenue of its COB UHD display products achieved a growth rate of 354%; second, it promoted the sales of the LED series product line through products with core independent intellectual property rights to achieve faster growth in the revenue and profits of its main business; third, it increased investment in research and development of cutting-edge 8K UHD display products, and optimized the supply chain and cost management, so that the scale efficiency gradually appeared and the comprehensive gross margin was improved.

After 5 years of dedicated research and development, Ledman has gradually mastered the industry-leading advanced COB integrated packaging technology, and in 2018, it became the first in the industry to achieve mass production.

In July 2019, Ledman released the 324-inch 8K Micro LED display based on COB technology, leading the world with Sony’s Crystal LED and Samsung’s The Wall. In February 2020, Ledman released the world’s first 0.6mm Micro LED UHD display based on COB technology.

After nearly two years of updating and iterating, Ledman’s COB-based Micro LED display products have become more and more diversified, including 1.9mm, 1.5mm, 1.2mm, 0.9mm, and 0.6mm UHD Micro LED displays. The growth rate of 354% of Ledman’s COB-based products in 2019 shows that Ledman’s years of research and development in LED field is yielding fruitful results.

Ledman says that since its establishment, the company has long been committed to science and technology innovation in LED industry and has created a complete independent intellectual property system, making its product R&D and technological innovation capabilities lead the industry. The company was the first in the industry to develop COB-based Micro LED UHD display products and make continues innovation. The company has the full series of UHD Micro LED display products and can achieve mass production. With Micro LED 8K UHD display as the leading product, the company has built a complete business ecology of COB-based LED products and solutions, including Micro, LED UHD display, intelligent conference system, LED intelligent lighting, beautiful city lighting project and information integration solutions adopting the technologies of 5G, 8K and AI.

The high value-added COB technology is improving Ledman’s profitability. The 2019 annual report shows that Ledman’s gross margin improved to 26.95% in 2019 from 23.4% in the same period last year. In addition, the company’s net sales margin and return on net assets increased to 4.75% and 4.16% respectively, demonstrating that the company’s profitability has improved significantly. Given that Ledman’s COB-based Micro LED products is still in the initial stage and scale effect has not yet infancy, has not yet achieved, the company’s future profit margin is likely to rise as its production and sales continue to increase fast.

Domestic market sales up 70%

Another highlight in Ledman’s 2019 annual report is the company’s significant breakthrough in the domestic market, which has become an important driving force for the company’s performance growth. According to the report, Ledman’s domestic sales revenue in 2019 grew by 70% year-on-year.

In the domestic market, Ledman’s UHD display products have been widely used in high-end conferences, large data centers, intelligent command centers, monitoring centers, exhibitions, education and teaching, radio and television broadcasting, etc., such as the Central Comprehensive Monitoring Center for the Guangzhou International Campus of South China University of Technology, the command center for a certain corps of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Shenzhen Meteorological Bureau, Conference Room of Beijing Wengge Group Headquarter, the Convergence Media Center of Xinhua News Agency in Changsha, Xianyang Radio and Television Studio, etc.

Ledman said when answering questions from investors on cninfo.com.cn that the company would continue to optimize its business structure at home and abroad and increase the domestic market share of the COB-based UHD display products and other related products with market demand and industry trends as the guide.

4 trillion blue ocean market to go into

Ledman is highly optimistic about the future development of COB-based HD display products, and says it will enhance the application of COB-based Micro LED display products in many professional fields.

The coming 5G and 8K era is expected to create a good market space for the development of the UHD LED display industry. As a new generation of ultra-small pitch LED display solutions based on COB packaging technology, the technology of Micro LED is increasingly mature and its performance is increasingly excellent, so it is expected to have better development opportunities in the future in high-end conference rooms, studios, security surveillance, traffic command centers, campus education, high-end retail, hotels, theaters, large video conference rooms and other professional and commercial display market.

In addition, China’s large investment in “New Infrastructure” provides a wide development space for LED displays. The White Paper on the Development of “New Infrastructure” points out that by 2025, it is expected that the direct investment in “New Infrastructure” in seven major areas, including 5G infrastructure, ultra-high voltage, intercity high-speed rail and urban rail transport, new energy vehicle charging piles, big data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial Internet will reach about 10 trillion yuan, driving cumulative investment of more than 17 trillion yuan. As a new generation of display technology, UHD LED displays have great application prospects in data centers, digital platforms, smart cities and other fields of “New Infrastructure”.

According to the Action Plan for the Development of UHD Video Industry (2019-2022) jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Central Radio and Television Station, the overall value of China’s UHD video industry will exceed 4 trillion yuan and the number of UHD video users will reach 200 million.

In addition to the state government, the municipal government of Shenzhen, where Ledman is located, also attaches great importance to the development of “5G + 8K” industry. The “Shenzhen 8K UHD Video Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)” proposes that by 2022, Shenzhen will be built into a base for 8K technology, 8K industry and “AI + 5G + 8K” application with global influence. By then, the scale of the 8K core industry is expected to exceed 80 billion yuan, driving the development of related industries valued at 400 billion yuan. The secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee said in his recent inspection in related enterprises that UHD was a new round of major technological development following digitalization and HD. He stressed that Shenzhen should seize new opportunities to create new engines of growth and promote the high-quality development of the “5G+8K” industry.

Ledman believes that its industry-leading Micro LED display products based on COB integrated packaging technology with its own intellectual property rights, as a new generation of UHD display products, will play an important role in the UHD display industry and gradually become the mainstream products in the 100 inches or above display market. This is Ledman’s strategic layout in “5G+8K” UHD intelligent display terminal application that adapts to the development of the UHD industry in the era of “New Infrastructure”. (CIS)