Toshiba sells TV business to China's Hisense


Struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba said Tuesday it has decided to sell its television business to China's Hisense Group as part of efforts to restore its balance sheet. Toshiba agreed with Hisense Group to sell 95 percent in shares of its Toshiba Visual Solutions (TVS) unit for about 12.9 billion yen ($114 million), it said in a statement.

The announcement came days after the Tokyo-based firm said it logged a net loss of $436 million for the fiscal first half, as it moves to complete the multi-billion-dollar sale of its chip business. After months of wrangling with competing bidders, Toshiba said in September it had formally signed an agreement to sell the chip unit for 2 trillion yen to a consortium led by U.S. private equity company Bain Capital, which included U.S. tech giants Apple and Dell and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix.

The chip unit brought in around a quarter of Toshiba's total annual revenue and is the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors.