Sharp to Look for More Investors

The turnaround at Sharp is 90% done, said CEO Kozo Takahashi yesterday.

However Sharp is still looking for companies to take share holdings in the company alongside Qualcomm, Samsung and others, and is looking to sell more factories and stock holdings and make a public share offer.

One of the asset sales being pursued is the sale of Recurrent Energy for around $190 million. Another is a Mexican factory.
Following sales of 3% of Sharp to Samsung for $100 million and 3.5% of the company to Qualcomm for $120 million, Sharp was also reported last September to be selling three more $100 million stakes to Makita, Denso and Lixil Group.

Yesterday Takahashi said the company is looking for more investors.

It is also going for an public equity offering to raise $1.7 billion.

Sharp has lost $9 billion in the last two years and has debts of $12.7 billion.

However, the quarter to the end of September was profitable and, for the financial year to March 2014, Sharp is forecasting a profit of $50 million following the reduction of fixed costs by $1.4 billion and the loss of 4,000 jobs.

(Source: Electronics Weekly)