Sharp ponders options to survive

LAS VEGAS (Reuters): Sharp is considering new ways to shore up its crumbling finances but is not talking with ‘Intel’ at the moment about any investment from the US chipmaker, a senior executive from the Japanese company said on Monday.

Industry analysts had speculated that Intel and Sharp which supplies screens to Apple for its latest iPhone, were in investment discussions, but executives said on Monday the pair were not in talks ‘at this moment’.

Sharp is fighting for survival after years of losses. Like other Japanese brands that spearheaded the 1970s electronics boom, it is wilting under stiffening competition and a strong Yen. In November, it said it may not be able to survive on its own after full-year net losses doubled to US$ 5.6 billion.

To repay short-term debt and stave off failure, the maker of Aquos televisions snagged a US$ 4.4 billion bailout in October from its banks. But it is now exploring further options.

“Our finances have been weakened considerably and we are considering ways to deal with that,” Sharp Vice President Kozo Takahashi told reporters at a roundtable briefing on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sharp’s shareholder-equity ratio at the end of September was 9.9% half the minimum level generally considered stable by investors. Takahashi described that only as ‘low’.

Takahashi’s comments on Monday indicated that no new agreement was imminent. He did not elaborate on Sharp’s funding options, except to say that any future cash injections might not be limited to just share offers.



Japan’s largest electronics companies have in past decades gradually ceded their market lead to lower-cost rivals from China and Korea, like Samsung Electronics.

They are shedding thousands of jobs, hiving off non-essential businesses and otherwise battling to secure long-term financing.

Unlike local rivals Sony and Panasonic, Sharp faces limited financing alternatives because it had to mortgage nearly all of its Japanese factories and offices to secure last year’s bailout. It has much less scope to sell assets to underpin its finances, making partnerships with other companies likelier.

In December, Qualcomm agreed to invest as much as US$ 120 million in Sharp. As part of that agreement, Qualcomm will work with Sharp to develop new, power-saving screens based on Sharp’s IGZO technology.

Qualcomm made an initial investment of 4.93 billion Yen (US$ 56.20 million) at the end of the year in a private placement of stock, giving the US company a 2.64% stake after dilution. The timing and amount of the remaining investment will be conditional on Sharp’s returning to profit in the six months ending 31 March.

Sharp has also been in talks for months with Hon Hai Precision Industry, with an eye to making the Taiwanese company a major shareholder. Talks, however, stalled after Hon Hai said it expected a say in management in return.

Current discussions with the Taiwanese company do not cover any partnership in small LCD displays, Takahashi said, such as those for cellphones.

Hon Hai already owns a third of Sharp’s 10th generation large-LCD plant in Sakai, in western Japan, dubbed the most advanced display factory in the world.

Sharp may sell its TV assembly plant in Mexico to Hon Hai; talks to sell the Taiwanese company another factory in China have frozen a source familiar with the matter told Reuters in December.