Panasonic's healthcare business to attract 10 PE bidders - report

According to Reuters, prospective PE buyers include KKR, Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group, TPG Capital, CVC Capital Partners and Unison Capital. Toshiba was named as a likely strategic bidder.

Panasonic is looking to raise as much as $1 billion from the sale of the unit, which produces products such as blood sugar monitoring equipment, hearing aids and electronic medical record-keeping systems.

Panasonic has set a deadline of May 27 for first-round bids. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is advising on the sale.

Kazuhiro Tsuga, president of Panasonic, said in March that the company was seeking a partner with the medical knowledge and capital to assist the future growth of the healthcare unit.

The unit generated a profit of JPY 8.7 billion ($85.77 million) on JPY134.3 billion in sales during the last fiscal year. Panasonic, however, reported a loss of JPY754.3 billion for the same period.

As a result, the company has put into place a vast restructuring plan, selling off assets in a bid to boost it cash flow. Advantage Partners was able to capitalize in this recently by acquiring the digital camera business of Panasonic unit Sanyo Electric last December.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Buyout
• Buyouts
• Japan
• Consumer
• KKR
• buyout