3 shareholders agree to sell each Sanyo share for 131 yen to Panasonic

OSAKA, Dec. 18 Kyodo - Panasonic Corp. and three major Sanyo Electric Co. shareholders have agreed the
three will sell each Sanyo share for 131 yen in a tender offer Panasonic will
launch, informed sources said Thursday.
It will cost Panasonic over 560 billion yen to acquire all the Sanyo shares
held by the three -- Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
The deal will be announced Friday, allowing Panasonic to launch the tender
offer in February and turn Sanyo into a subsidiary next spring, the sources
said.
After acquiring Sanyo, Panasonic is expected to tie up with Hitachi Ltd. as
Japan's largest electrical machinery maker in sales terms.
The three shareholders are expected to convert their preferred Sanyo shares
into common stock before selling them to Panasonic. If all the preferred shares
are converted, they will account for about 70 percent of Sanyo's outstanding
shares.
Goldman had earlier rejected Panasonic's offer to purchase Sanyo shares for 130
yen per share, up about 10 yen from the consumer electronics maker's initial
offer, complaining the price was far lower than the market price. Sanyo shares
closed at 143 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday.
But the giant U.S. investment bank accepted the higher Panasonic-offered price
of 131 yen in a meeting of top officials from the two companies Wednesday, the
sources said.
Daiwa and Sumitomo Mitsui have already responded positively to Panasonic's offer.
Goldman had argued the price Panasonic offered would not reflect Sanyo's
corporate value and reportedly had wanted to sell its Sanyo shares for around
250 yen per share.
After incurring a net loss in the September-November quarter for the first time
since its initial public offering in 1999, Goldman might have given priority to
recovering cash as Panasonic was unlikely to offer any higher price for Sanyo
amid the uncertain business environment, analysts said.
==Kyodo