Merrill Lynch said PHILPS intends to sell the Panasonic LCD company shares took over

In August 17th, the "Wall Street journal" quoted a report by Merrill Lynch said, Holland PHILPS company plans to sell holdings in LG PHILPS LCD company 1/3 of the shares, while the Japanese giant plasma Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation is one of the possible buyers.

"The Wall Street journal" reported that Merrill Lynch recently in a report to investors in pointed out that recently, PHILPS and a number of companies were contacted to transfer to the hands of the PHILPS LG LCD 33% of the shares of the company. PHILPS's exposure to both flat panel manufacturers, including large private equity investment companies.

Merrill Lynch pointed out that LG 1/3 of PHILPS's shares could be worth $five billion. Previously, PHILPS has said it wants to withdraw from the joint venture. For the Wall Street Journal reported, LG electronics company did not comment.

Daniel Kim, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, said PHILPS is actively looking for buyers, including Japan's Matsushita Electric Company as one of the potential buyers.

According to an agreement reached by LG electronics and PHILPS in 2004, prior to the year of 2007, the shares held by the two parties in LG PHILPS LCD must be greater than 30% (). This means that even if the transfer of shares in PHILPS, the final transaction also need to be in July next year.

Last month, LG PHILPS LCD announced second quarter earnings. Data show that the company suffered the worst quarterly losses in history, forcing the company to slash capital expenditure plans this year. As for the reason of bad performance, PHILPS LG LCD said LCD TV, monitor prices fell rapidly, in addition to the LCD panel industry rapidly expanding production capacity, the company's revenue and profit fell sharply.

It is worth mentioning that, earlier this month, PHILPS company transferred 80% shares of the company's semiconductor, currently still holds 19.9% of the shares. Company executives also said that PHILPS's future will be the main medical equipment and fashion consumer electronics products, and therefore will be removed from the company name".