Toshiba to Sell Domestic TV Biz to China's Hisense

Tokyo, Nov. 14 (Jiji Press)--Struggling Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. <6502> on Tuesday announced a plan to withdraw from production of television sets at home. The company said it has reached an accord to sell a 95 pct equity stake in fully owned TV unit Toshiba Visual Solutions Corp. to major Chinese electronics producer Hisense Group for some 12.9 billion yen at the end of February next year at the earliest. Toshiba has been considering whether to retreat from the domestic TV business, which has been mired in the red, after pulling the plug on its TV operations abroad in December 2015. The company will license the right to use its TV brand to Hisense. Toshiba Visual Solutions is expected to continue production and sales of its Regza-brand TVs under the umbrella of the Chinese company. Toshiba is seen booking a profit from the sale of the unit in fiscal 2017 ending in March next year. Given financial conditions at the TV unit, which is in negative net worth, the gain from the sale will come to about 25 billion yen, Toshiba officials said. At Thursday's press conference to announce its April-September financial results, Toshiba, which has been hit by massive losses from its U.S. nuclear operations, indicated that it will consider the possibility of retreating from its unprofitable TV and personal computer operations as part of thorough structural reforms. END