Brand Watches

Sanyo will sell its 45 percent stake in a money-losing joint venture to partner Seiko Epson Corp. which aims to quickly turn around the world’s third-largest maker of small- and medium-sized LCDs used in cellphones and digital cameras.

The sale will leave Sanyo, which has already withdrawn from the organic light-emitting diode business and makes no cathode ray tubes or plasma panels, with no display operations.

The firms did not provide financial details of the transaction.

Some analysts said the loss-making status of the venture makes it difficult to estimate the size of the transaction, but terms of the deal could be quite unfavourable to Sanyo.

“There is a chance that Sanyo may have paid Seiko Epson to take the stake,” said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst from Nomura Securities Co.

“This is not a positive for Seiko Epson unless they really reshuffle and restructure the joint venture, including job cuts. They have to improve their marketing tremendously,” he said.