Solvay today announced that it has decided to participate, as lead investor, in the second capital increase in three years of Plextronics, Inc., an innovator of technology for the printed electronics market.
Plextronics specializes in the development and commercialization of polymer-based technologies for printed electronics such as OLED lighting and displays, organic solar cells and RFID ’smart’ tags. By investing USD 12 million, Solvay becomes the largest minority shareholder in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company. The capital increase gives Plextronics additional financial means to pursue its development and growth strategy in printed electronics. This is an emerging industry that takes advantage of printing technologies to manufacture electronic devices with a wider variety of shapes and supports, including thin, flexible substrates.
“Solvay has identified organic electronics and sustainable energy as platforms for future growth based on radical innovation. The group believes that the new materials and technologies, which it is currently developing through its own R&D efforts and a number of partnerships with technological leaders, convey potential solutions to some of our contemporary societies’ most acute issues, such as the cost-effective implementation of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient devices”, says Léopold Demiddeleer, General Manager of Future Businesses Competence Center. “With its cutting edge technology, Plextronics is a perfect partner for one of Solvay’s most promising innovation platforms,” adds Demiddeleer.
“The funding from this round will enable us to continue to advance our lighting and solar products - namely our Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) and Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) materials and inks - so that we can scale these products to meet the customer and industry demand we are seeing,” comments Andrew W. Hannah, President and Chief Executive Officer of Plextronics.
“The global collaboration that our companies envisioned a couple of years ago is going even better than we could have imagined. To have a corporate investor like Solvay that understands our markets, technology and the opportunities that await us is extremely important,” Hannah adds. “Solvay has become a true partner.”
The investment in Plextronics complements Solvay’s own R&D efforts in organic electronics and other collaborations in the field, such as the R&D agreement between the Group’s 100 % subsidiary Solvay Solexis and Thin Film Electronics ASA of Oslo, Norway, to develop polymeric inks for the manufacture of printed memories, as well as Solvay’s research programs with the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Plextronics, Inc. is an international technology company that specializes in printed solar, lighting and other electronics. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, the company’s focus is on organic solar cell and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) lighting, specifically the conductive inks and process technologies that enable those and other similar applications. Particularly relevant as the worldwide search for renewable energy becomes more urgent, the company’s technology will enable the mass production of printed devices, such as low-cost organic solar cells and high-efficiency lighting.
Details are available at www.plextronics.com.
SOLVAY is an international chemical and pharmaceutical Group with headquarters in Brussels. It employs more than 29,000 people in 50 countries. In 2008, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 9.5 billion, generated by its three sectors of activity: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals. Solvay is listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Brussels (NYSE Euronext: SOLB.BE - Bloomberg: SOLB.BB - Reuters: SOLBt.BR). Details are available at www.solvay.com.