By Sarah Falson
TOKYO: Matsushita’s JVC unit will be sold to Texas Pacific Group (TPG) for an estimated $US680 million, but JVC’s local distributor, Hagemeyer Brands, has confirmed the sale won’t affect its operations.
The deal to purchase JVC, which shares its parent-company Matsushita with Panasonic, is expected to be completed by the end of March, bumping out rival bidder Cerberus Capital Managerment.
The struggling audiovisual manufacturer will be completely bought-out by TPG, and then de-listed off the Japanese Stock Exchange for restructuring, according to reports.
TPG is expected to list JVC again in the next five years, though a report in the EE Times claims TPG won’t keep JVC that long as there has been strong interest in parts of the company by other potential buyers.
JVC, which was founded in 1927 and developed the first-ever VCR technology in 1976, has been an object of interest over the past six months because of its ill-performing sales. However, according to JVC brand manager at Hagemeyer Brands, Susan Rogic, the JVC brand in Australia will not be affected by the US buy-out.
“From a Hagemeyer perspective this does not affect day-to-day business in Australia,” Rogic told Current.com.au today.
Kenwood USA was originally tipped to purchase JVC, however it pulled out last week leaving both TPG and Cerberus to bid against each other. According to a report from the US, Kenood USA decided not to participate in the bidding for JVC because it did not correspond with the company’s aggressive long-term worldwide goals.