Sanyo Will Spin Off Some Of Its Battery Operations
By John Laposky -- TWICE, 11/9/2009
OSAKA, JAPAN — Sanyo Electric said it will sell part of its nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery business to FDK for 6.4 billion yen ($70 million).
Sanyo expects to sell its Sanyo Energy Twicell unit, which produces NiMH batteries under the Eneloop brand, as well as Sanyo Energy Tottori, the company’s coin cell and cylindrical lithium battery unit, to FDK, an electronics parts manufacturing division of Fujitsu.
Sanyo will continue to handle product planning and distribution for Eneloop batteries by purchasing them back from FDK.
The sale is an effort to speed the approval of antitrust authorities in the United States and China assessing the long-awaited $4.5 billion tender offer from Panasonic, announced last December and formally made last week (see p. 4). The deal won the approval of the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the European Commission in September with the stipulation that Sanyo reduce its battery production facilities.
Sanyo will retain its automotive nickel-metal hydride battery business. That unit was the primary target of Panasonic’s 400 billion yen ($4.4 billion) acquisition offer in December, made with an eye on the fast-growing global market for batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.
Sanyo anticipated a consolidated loss of 9 billion yen ($98 million) on the transaction which it said was already incorporated into the company’s latest earnings outlook.
