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Panasonic is nearing a deal to sell three domestic semiconductor plants to an Israeli company as it presses ahead with a move to cut money-losing operations, a report said Wednesday.
The electronics giant's shares jumped 3.90% to 1,172 yen in afternoon Tokyo trade after the Nikkei business daily said it would sell majority stakes in the three factories to chipmaker TowerJazz.
The deal's price tag would be determined later, it added.
Most of the plants' 2,500 workers will stay on after the agreement, with other members of staff transferred to different divisions within Panasonic, the Nikkei said.
The deal could reportedly be finalised in the fiscal year to March 2014.
Panasonic is also in talks to sell full or partial stakes in overseas chip-assembly plants to a Singaporean company, including factories in China, Indonesia and Malaysia, the leading Japanese business daily said.
The tie-up with Nasdaq-listed TowerJazz would provide Panasonic with fresh capital while expanding the plants' customer base and boosting production, the Nikkei said.
In response, Panasonic said "we are making various studies on our semiconductor business strategy but nothing has been decided at the moment".
Panasonic is undergoing a huge restructuring aimed at repairing its balance sheet after two consecutive years of record losses.
It has already decided to pull out of the consumer smartphone business in Japan and plasma televisions.
The firm recently doubled its net profit forecast for the current fiscal year through March to 100 billion yen ($985 million).
© (c) 2013 AFP
2 Comments
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cwhite
Why not sell off the entire company piece by piece. I would like to know what they are planning in replacement of what they sold. Downsizing should not be an option, just replacing old stuff with new stuff. If they are smart they will be investing in renewable energy, biotech, nanotech, polymers, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, DNA & genome tech, space energy, smart grid applications, high-tech automotive, BEMS, IEMS, HEMS, CEMS, power distribution, Mechatronic Systems Applications, bioengineering, carbon nanotubes, synthetic fibers, etc, etc........ anything Japan is already at the forefront of cutting edge next gen applications. Then you can kiss the rest of the followers goodbye in 10-20 years time. You can't copy the above tech and hope to be successful. It takes years of dedicated research, technical knowledge and the right type of persistent people (culture) that can deliver. Would you ever want a biosynthetic heart valve or brain implant made in China? Even if it is 1/10th the cost? Japan just needs to wake up and better understand and position themselves strategically and become the dominating countries in the above fields not just leading.
VicMOsaka
Sell them somewhere else.