Fujitsu Ten to buy 25.1 pct stake in auto radio unit of Grundig - UPDATE
From bostonredsox
PostID 195942 On Monday, June 10, 2002 (EST) at 9:45:43 PM
06/10/2002
AFX News
(c) 2002 by AFP-Extel News Ltd
NUREMBERG, Germany (AFX) - Fujitsu Ltd has agreed to buy a 25.1 pct stake in the GCIS auto radio unit of troubled German consumer electronics company Grundig GmbH, Grundig said.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Fujitsu is acquiring the stake via its unit Fujitsu Ten Ltd, a joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp and Denso Corp.
The deal is expected to give Grundig a breathing space to solve its financial problems.
Banks have agreed to extend the company's credit lines until the end of August providing the deal with Fujitsu goes through, the FTD said last week.
The deal would also mean that the company would have longer than until the end of the year to find an investor, as originally stated, the paper cited sources close to 89 pct Grundig shareholder Anton Kathrein as saying
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Germany - Grundig needs to find investor by summer 2002
Grundig (Nuremberg, Germany), consumer electronics company, will not survive unless it secure fresh capital from an investor by summer 2002. It is currently holding advanced talks with three financial investors, although an agreement is not imminent. Anton Kathrein, majority shareholder, is prepared to give any potential investor a stake of up to 49% in Grundig, which would use the fresh funds to become a competitive business. Grundig controlled 19.1% of the German TV market in 2001, followed by Philips with 18.7%, Loewe with 11.4%, Sony with 7.6%, Panasonic with 6.2%, Metz with 6% and Schneider with 2.7%. The new investor will help finance Grundig's expansion strategy, with a massive marketing push planned in Asia, where the company has not sold its products since being sold by Philips in 1997. It plans to sign purchasing, sales and supply agreements with Asian partners. High restructure costs led to Grundig making a loss of around Euro160 mil in 2001, on sales of around Euro1.3 bil. Grundig is also in final talks to secure a partner for its profitable car audio business, and is close to finalising the sale of its office communications division. Separately, figures from GfK and gfu show that 9.9% of German households had a colour TV as of July 2001, with 78.5% having a VCR, 67.9% a HiFi system, 39.9% satellite systems and 17.5% camcorders. Original displays some data in pie chart and bar chart form.
Handelsblatt , 25 April 2002 , p11
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