Panasonic in talks for biggest deals in decade

Panasonic is in talks for acquisitions in the US and Europe and may use its biggest deals there in a decade to speed a transition from television maker to supplier of solar energy systems and power storage. "Acquisitions are in our sight as we need to seek a different business model in the US and Europe," Shusaku Nagae, who heads Panasonic's Eco Solutions Co, said in in Tokyo on Thursday. Deals under consideration may be worth more than 10 billion yen (Dh459 million), he said, declining to elaborate because the discussions are private. Panasonic, heading for a record $10 billion loss this fiscal year amid plunging TV prices, plans to expand its business selling bundled solar and power management services to businesses in the US and Europe, Nagae said. The Osaka-based company's Panasonic Electric Works unit paid ¤172 million for Germany's Vossloh Elektro GmbH in 2002, its last acquisition in the US or Europe worth more than 10 billion yen and one of only three in the group's history, according to Bloomberg data. "We plan to start something we have never done before," Nagae said. "In those countries, we can't replicate the roof- top solar business we do in Japan." Panasonic, Japan's largest solar panel maker after Sharp Corp and Kyocera Corp, generates more than half of its revenue domestically, where it also builds and sells homes with built-in solar panels and systems to feed the power they generate into appliances and storage batteries. Target markets The possible acquisitions in Europe and the US are aimed at allowing the company to adapt this model to commercial properties including shopping centres in those countries, Nagae said. Germany, the world's biggest solar power market, Italy and Spain are among the regions where demand is high for energy-saving products, he said. Rival Sharp, Japan's biggest solar-panel maker, agreed in 2010 to buy California's Recurrent Energy for $305 million to expand into building power plants as it faces more competition from China-based manufacturers. Owning the San Francisco-based solar-power developer helps Osaka-based Sharp move further into the US market for installing photovoltaic panels and building power plants to sell emissions-free electricity to utilities and commercial users.