Sanyo in agreement over Panasonic bid

TOKYO:Sanyo Electric Co. is largely in agreement with a bid by Panasonic Corp. to take a majority stake in the company and thereby become Japan's largest electronics manufacturer, a press report said Sunday. Panasonic president Fumio Otsubo and Sanyo president Seiichiro Sano reached the "broad agreement" last month, public broadcaster NHK without naming its sources.

Reports of Panasonic's plan to acquire Sanyo have been widespread in the Japanese media but NHK was the first to report there had been any agreement.Panasonic intended to make Sanyo one of its subsidiaries, the network said.No officials were immediately available at the head offices of Panasonic and Sanyo to comment on the reports.

Panasonic would make the bid public, possibly this week, if it managed to reach agreement with Sanyo's top shareholders, the network said. The major shareholders-Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., the Daiwa Securities SMBC group, and the Goldman Sachs group-hold a total of nearly 430 million preferred shares in Sanyo.In 2006, Sanyo issued preferred shares worth 300 billion yen (3.1 billion dollars) to the three shareholders.

If converted into common shares, the shares would represent some 70 percent of Sanyo's outstanding issues in terms of voting rights.Through the acquisition of Sanyo, Panasonic hopes to boost its lithium-ion battery sales and newly-launched solar battery businesses, they said. The combined projected group sales of Panasonic and Sanyo for the year ending March 2009 come to 11.2 trillion yen, surpassing the 10.9 trillion yen sales estimate for Hitachi Ltd., Japan's largest electronics manufacturer.