Samsung Fine Chemicals to buy into U.S. chip materials firm

 Samsung Fine Chemicals Co., a chemical unit of South Korea's top conglomerate Samsung Group, said

Thursday it will buy shares in a new U.S. chip materials company that will be listed on the U.S. tech-heavy NASDAQ.

   Samsung Fine Chemicals said it will spend US$100 million in cash to buy the new shares of SSL, which was spun off U.S. solar energy firm SunEdison.

   The chemical firm and SunEdison are partners in a 50-50 joint venture SMP. The South Korean company said it will sell a 35 percent stake in the SMP to SunEdison for 140 billion won ($130million) to raise cash for the new shares purchase.

   SMP was established in 2011 to produce polysilicon, an essential raw material for solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity. It is currently  building a plant with an annualproduction capacity of 10,000 tons of polysilicon in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

(Yonhap)