| The deal, which is expected to be 50:50 or skewed towards a majority stake for Sanyo when signed, will culminate after protracted negotiations between the two consumer electronics companies. |
| Sanyo has been a technology partner with BPL for the past two decades. The new venture will initially focus on colour TV (CTV) business. |
| BPL's two CTV factories at Noida and Bangalore will be shifted under the new joint venture, which will also handle the entire distribution and marketing of CTVs. |
| The valuation of this deal is not clear as yet. No official statement were available from the companies. |
| With this move, Sanyo will make its much delayed entry into India. A host of consumer durables multinationals such as LG, Samsung, Sony have already made a deep impact in India. |
| These global corporations directly imported their products initially, and could offer more competitive prices than BPL. |
| BPL, on the other hand, had invested heavily in complete vertical integration right from the raw materials stage to the end product level. To top it, it had to advertise heavily too. |
| The group also diversified into unrelated sectors such as power generation with significant investment, thus spreading itself too thin. The company subsequently was caught in a debt spiral, which now stands at Rs 1,000 crore. |
| BPL Ltd, the flagship of the group, is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,800 crore in two years time from the current Rs 1,200 crore and should be cash positive in three years. |
| In an earlier interview with Business Standard BPL Ltd, its vice president (finance), P V K Sundaram, had said: "An active debt restructuring on. Equity infusion from Sanyo is also being worked. We should be confidently moving ahead with the restructured group." |
| Sundaram had also stated that they intend to be back in the black during the next three years which will also see them bouncing back with a 14 per cent market share in the colour TV market. |
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