LG Philips affiliate files for bankruptcy

LG Philips Displays USA Inc., a maker of cathode-ray tubes for televisions and computer monitors, sought bankruptcy protection less than two months after its Dutch affiliate was declared bankrupt. The San Diego-based company listed assets of less than $100 million and debts that include about $573 million owed to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a filing yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. LG PhilipsDisplays USA said it owes 140 trade creditors about $52 million. Sales of glass TV tubes have fallen as consumers turn to lighter and thinner plasma and liquid-crystal monitors. The LG PhilipsDisplays group is the world’s second-largest maker of cathode-ray tubes after Samsung SDI Co., which has scaled back. LG Philips Displays USA is an affiliate of LG Philips Displays Holding BV, a joint venture between LG Electronics Inc. of Korea and Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands. The Dutch venture was declared bankrupt by a court in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, on Jan. 31. The U.S. company has a single plant in Mexico and 2005 sales of about $356 million, company president Patrick Canavan said in court papers. A factory in Ohio closed in 2002, he said. The largest unsecured creditors listed in court papers include LG Philips Displays Korea Co., owed $82 million, and LG International Corp. of Korea, owed $34.7 million. LG and Philips also control LG Philips LCD Co., which overtook Samsung Electronics Co. as the world’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays used in computers and televisions last year, according to market researcher ISuppli Corp.