Well, it’s now official. Haier, one of the biggest brands in appliances and consumer electronics in China has signed an agreement with Sanyo Electric Co., LTD., to acquire their washing machine and consumer use refrigerator businesses in Japan, and washing machine, consumer use refrigerator and other consumer electric appliance businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Both companies have previously signed a MOU (memorandum of agreement) back in July 28 and have largely hashed out the details of the deal which include the following (we’ve highlighted the bits that directly concern PH customers):
- Shares of “SANYO Aqua Corporation”, a company that develops, manufactures and sells both consumer and commercial use washing machines, and shares that SANYO Electric holds in “Konan Denki Co., Ltd.”, a company that manufactures washing machines, will be transferred to Haier.
- Shares that SANYO Electric holds in “Haier SANYO Electric Co., Ltd.”, a company that designs and develops consumer use refrigerators, and shares that SANYO Electric holds in “Haier Electrical Appliance (Thailand) Co., Ltd.”, a company that manufactures consumer use refrigerators, will be transferred to Haier.
- SANYO HA Asean Corporation (Vietnam), P.T. SANYO Indonesia, P.T. SANYO Sales Indonesia, SANYO Philippines Inc. and SANYO Sales & Service Sdn Bhd (Malaysia) will be transferred to Haier. The above companies engage in the manufacturing and/or sales of consumer use refrigerators, washing machines and other consumer use appliances in Southeast Asia.
- Both parties agree that Haier will sell refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners and other consumer home appliances under the “SANYO” brand for a specified period of time in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.
- The patents, designs and trademarks related to consumer use refrigerators and consumer/commercial use washing machines of the aformentioned businesses will be transferred to Haier. About 340 employees of SANYO Group in Japan working for the related businesses will be transferred to Haier.
Following the final agreement, both parties intend to gradually complete transfer of the businesses from January to late March 2012.
Mr. Du Jingguo, Vice President of Haier Group said, “This acquisition is not one that simply brings together the resources from Haier and SANYO, but one that enables us to create a synergy of research and development (R&D) and marketing systems by combining the resources of both companies. This is an opportune time for Haier to augment our R&D capabilities and build up first-class, competitive manufacturing bases across Japan and Southeast Asia, as well as localize our sales and marketing efforts in Southeast Asia. Haier will implement a dual-brand strategy with the “Haier” and “SANYO” brands in Southeast Asian markets, and with the “Haier” and “AQUA” brands in Japan, so as to achieve rapid growth from our innovation-led processes.”