Coretronic to restructure, moves drone maker directly under new parent
It's not clear if the restructuring is related to Taiwan's moves to strengthen its "non-red" drone supply chain.
Coretronic Corporation (中強光電), a maker of LCD backlights and projectors based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, will hand its drone maker, Coretronic Intelligent Robotics (中光電智能機器人), to its new parent on Nov. 1. CoreIntelligence Holdings (中光電投資控股, or 中光電投控), the group's listed parent since Sept. 3, will then hold the unit directly.
In an Oct. 19 filing, Coretronic said it will cut its capital by NT$1.9 billion (about US$58.5 million) and pay it back to the parent mostly in shares. The drone maker goes over at its Sept. 30 book value of about NT$653.3 million (about US$20.1 million). By our calculation, that is about half the value of the shares handed over, which include a cloud-services unit and a venture-capital arm. The filing gave the purpose only as "strategic development planning." When the group announced the holding structure in April, a spokesperson said it would give the group's new businesses more flexibility, since its units differ in stage of development and capital needs, Commercial Times reported.
This week's filing doesn’t say whether the move is meant to let the drone unit raise capital or take on partners on its own, as Taiwan’s non-red drone supply-chain push draws bidders. CoreIntelligence holds an investor call Oct. 28.
The drone maker has supplied Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (國防部). In October 2025, Coretronic's chief financial officer said a ministry tender for about 3,037 drones was shipping in eight batches, with six shipped by the end of September, the Central News Agency (中央社) reported. He said all the unit's drones were made in Taiwan.
In April, the company said large tenders hadn't started and would have no clear timetable until the legislature passed a special budget, Commercial Times reported. In July, the paper reported that domestic tenders still hadn't been released while that budget was before the legislature, so the drone business was relying on existing government projects and follow-on tenders.
On Aug. 27, Taiwan's legislature passed a law on defense self-reliance and the unmanned-vehicle industry that requires the central government to budget NT$240 billion (about US$7.4 billion) over six years through its annual budgets, rather than the special budget the cabinet had sought, the Central News Agency reported. Separately, more of Taiwan's small government drone tenders have ended with no award this year, as we reported.
Sources: CoreIntelligence Holdings (中光電投控, TPEx 3718), material information on Coretronic Corporation's capital reduction, Commercial Times [1], [2], [3], Central News Agency [1], [2], Coretronic Intelligent Robotics, CoreIntelligence Holdings Corporation, Coretronic Corporation, 2025 annual report, Coretronic Intelligent Robotics (company website)
Editor: Ian Lamont
