Arçelik, Turkey’s biggest maker of fridges and washing machines, will buy a 60 percent stake in Hitachi’s overseas home appliance arm.
Arçelik will pay $300 million for the stake in a firm to be established by Hitachi Global Life Solutions (Hitachi GLS) in the Netherlands, it said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The Turkish company said that the new firm, which will have factories in China and in Thailand along with 10 regional sales offices, will produce home appliances and sell them in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, under the Hitachi brand. It expects the sale to be completed by April 1.
The agreement will give Arçelik and the Netherlands-based firm it controls the right to produce, market and sell home appliances under the Hitachi brand for a period of 15 years. The deal foresees extending those rights to as many as 40 years, Arçelik said.
Arçelik sells products under a dozen brands including Beko and Grundig. It has bought assets abroad in recent years including Defy Appliances of South Africa and Pakistan’s Dawlance Group. Last year, it agreed to buy control of a firm that operates the Singer brand in Bangladesh as it looked to expand in the Asia Pacific region.
Arçelik is owned by Koç Holding, Turkey’s biggest industrial group.
Ahval