Japanese home appliance giants collectively sell assets "winter"

Recently, according to the Japan News Network, the Japanese company Sony planned to sell its US headquarters building in New York to improve the company’s deficit management.

According to the report, Sony’s president Hirai Hirai stated on the 17th that Sony is implementing a layoff plan for 10,000 people under the new system. At the same time, in order to reduce the size of the deficit, some company assets will be sold, including the US headquarters building. Mr. Hirai said that it is imperative to realize the black-letter business of the company as soon as possible, establish a sound management system, and complete the adjustment of the industrial structure.

Sony has long heard that it may sell a 37-story New York headquarters building. It is understood that the sale of these assets can raise $1 billion for Sony; in addition, Sony may also sell the battery business, which is used in the production of tablet PCs, PCs and mobile phones. Lithium batteries, with a total of 2,700 employees, have three factories in Japan and two factories overseas.

The other two Japanese TV makers Matsushita and Sharp, who are in a similar position as Sony, have recently expressed their desire to repatriate funds through the sale of office buildings and various businesses.

Sharp, currently has pledged all assets to the bank to obtain $4.6 billion in aid. At present, Hon Hai has already invested in a LCD panel factory located in the city of Sharp. Because of its high level of panel technology, Sharp has attracted companies such as Qualcomm and Lenovo to negotiate and cooperate. Some companies have already reached a cooperation with Sharp and have secured Sharp's breathing time.

In Panasonic, Panasonic CFO Hideaki Kawai recently said in an interview with Reuters that Matsushita plans to raise a total of 1.34 billion U.S. dollars by selling some real estate and investment businesses by the end of March 2013. Debt while still maintaining strong R & D capabilities. It is reported that all of Matsushita’s fixed assets value is about 21 billion U.S. dollars, which is 30% more than that of Apple.

Currently, these three companies have come up with a business restructuring plan: Panasonic regroups around batteries, automotive components, and home appliances. Sony focuses on smart phones, games, and cameras, while Sharp focuses on displays. Analysts said that no matter what measures are taken, reducing the scale of operations during the current fiscal year is critical to the prospects of these increasingly declining Japanese companies.

Related industry sources said that due to the economic downturn in Japan, more and more Japanese technology companies have to embark on the road of selling assets to raise funds in order to maintain their livelihoods. Japan’s home appliance giants have lost their strength in losses, and now they have come to rely on selling assets to survive. The exit of some of these companies' home appliance sub-sectors is a rare industrial opportunity for Chinese and Korean home appliance companies. However, if they want to seize market shares of Japanese companies, Chinese companies still have a long way to go.