Osaka
– 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 Electric 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
company’s pending takeover by Panasonic, announced last December. The deal won
the approval of the Japan Fair Trade Commission and the European Commission
last month 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.
