OSAKA, Nov. 4, 2009 (Kyodo News International) --
(Editors: ADDING INFO)

Panasonic Corp. will launch a tender offer Thursday for shares of Sanyo Electric Co. (OOTC:SANYY) to convert Sanyo into a subsidiary, Panasonic officials said Wednesday, in a move that would boost its group sales closer to the level of Japan's largest electrical machinery maker Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE:HIT)

Panasonic's board of directors decided on the tender offer Wednesday morning, while Sanyo's board adopted a resolution to endorse the offer.

The offer is expected to end successfully in early December as the U.S. Goldman Sachs group (NYSE:GS) and two other major shareholders of Sanyo have agreed to sell more than 50 percent of their outstanding Sanyo shares to Panasonic at the planned price of 131 yen per share. Sanyo share purchases are estimated to cost Panasonic at least 400 billion yen.

Since the tender offer price is far lower than the market level, most of the individual investors are expected to refrain from accepting the offer. Sanyo shares closed Wednesday's morning session at 225 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Panasonic is expected to complete the procedures to turn Sanyo into its subsidiary within December, some one year after it announced the plan to do so through a tender offer.

The actual tender offer comes more than a half year behind schedule as competition policy watchdogs in countries where Panasonic and Sanyo operate have taken a long time to examine whether the integration would run counter to antitrust rules. Particularly, the integration is expected to boost Panasonic's share of the world battery market.

The United States is soon expected to become the last country to approve the integration, following China that gave its approval in late October.

Combined group sales of Panasonic and Sanyo came to 9.54 trillion yen for the year to March 2009, close to Hitachi's 10 trillion yen and nearly 2 trillion above those of Sony Corp.