发帖
雷达卡
TECH
Taiwan company and Japan’s INCJ have been battling for control of Sharp since last year
By TAKASHI MOCHIZUKI
Updated Feb. 4, 2016 3:25 a.m. ET
1 COMMENTS
TOKYO— Sharp Corp. said Thursday that it was leaning toward a takeover offer from Taiwanese electronics assembler Foxconn, in a last-minute turnabout that could clear the way for one of the most prominent investments by a foreign company in Japan.
Until this week, Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, a government-backed fund, appeared to have the inside track on a deal with Sharp. Though the fund has offered less than half as much money, according to people familiar with the situation, its proposal would keep Sharp’s display technology in Japanese hands.
But Sharp Chief Executive Kozo Takahashi said Thursday that the Foxconn offer was more attractive than the fund’s proposal. He cited potential synergies and the scale of Foxconn, the biggest maker of Apple Inc. iPhones.
“The two offers are not equal,’’ Mr. Takahashi said after a board meeting to check on the progress of the bids. “We are currently devoting more resources to checking Foxconn’s offer,’’ he said, though Sharp will also maintain a dialogue with INCJ.
The battle has spotlighted larger questions about the role of the government in restructuring Japan’s troubled electronics industry, which has been battered by competition from China and South Korea and increasingly forced to retreat from consumer markets.
Early indications that Sharp would favor INCJ’s offer despite its lower value prompted questions about the country’s openness to foreign ownership of companies in strategic industries. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged Japan to put out the welcome mat, but inbound deals have been scarce.
The tilt toward Foxconn “shows that Japan is open to foreign capital,” said Nicholas Benes, a Tokyo-based corporate governance expert. “The government must have realized that this was going to be viewed as a bellwether deal for Abenomics,” as Mr. Abe’s plan to revive Japan’s economy is known.
Sharp shares rose 17% in Tokyo trading after news broke of the decision to hold exclusive talks with Foxconn. In a statement, Sharp said it hopes to reach a final deal in a month.
Sharp, a century-old Osaka-based electronics maker, has suffered deep losses after its consumer-electronics business declined and it faced tougher competition in the display panels it sells to smartphone makers.
On Thursday, Sharp reported a net loss of 24.7 billion yuan in three months through December, compared with a year-earlier loss of 11.9 billion yuan. Revenue dropped 13% from a year earlier.
INCJ is also working with Toshiba Corp. on its restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter. Toshiba has said it plans to sell its medical-device unit and possibly other divisions.
Sharp Board Under Pressure to Consider Taiwanese Bid Over Japanese Offer
On Thursday, Toshiba said it expected a net loss of 710 billion yuan in the year through March 31, up sharply from a previous estimate of 550 billion yuan, in the wake of a drawn-out accounting scandal.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou’s pursuit of Sharp goes back to 2012, when he initially reached a deal for Foxconn to take a 10% stake in the Japanese company. The deal unraveled the next year after dismal earnings reports sent Sharp’s shares plunging.
That history made some Sharp executives reluctant to work with Mr. Gou again, according to people familiar with their thinking. Even after Thursday’s developments, it is possible the two sides could fail to reach a final agreement.
Mr. Gou traveled to Japan last week to make a personal appeal for his bid, which Foxconn raised last week to 659 billion yuan (5.5 billion dollars), according to people familiar with the matter. That compared with an offer from INCJ that the people said was worth no more than 300 billion yuan.
One person briefed on the talks said Sharp’s lenders pressed the company to take a closer look at the Foxconn offer after Mr. Gou’s presentation, in which he said Foxconn wouldn’t cut Sharp’s workforce. The lenders believed the larger investment from Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., would give Sharp a better chance to grow, this person said.
Foxconn didn't respond immediately to a request for comment. Late Wednesday, it said in a statement that it had “a very clear plan to take Sharp forward by investing in the company and its people, by sharing our world-class experience and expertise, and by introducing our unrivaled network of global customers to Sharp’s products and its manufacturing capabilities.”
Mr. Takahashi said a deal with Foxconn could benefit Sharp’s production, sales and material-procurement operations. He said he would work to prevent a breakup of Sharp and said he had no plans at this point to step down.
He also raised the prospect of an alliance with Japan Display Inc., the country’s other major producer of smartphone display panels. Until now, Japan Display and Sharp, each of which supplies Apple with mobile device screens, have operated at arm’s length.
For now, the prospect of reviving Sharp appears to outweigh previous concerns at the company and among some Japanese policy makers that the country’s technology might leak overseas.
“It’s no use having that technology if the company is going under,” said Hideyuki Ishiguro, senior strategist at Okasan Securities.
—Atsuko Fukase, Eric Pfanner, Megumi Fujikawa and Kosaku Narioka contributed to this article.
提升卡
置顶卡
沉默卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
京公网安备 11010802022788号
