Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba To Merge Industrial Electric Systems Business

By Agence France-Presse Japanese electronics giants Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. reported on April 18 that they will integrate their industrial electric systems operations to boost competitiveness. The joint venture will offer sales, engineering, installation and servicing of industrial electric and automation systems for various factories, such as metal processing, paper, petrochemicals and automobiles. The merger is scheduled for Oct. 1, and the new firm, capitalized at 35 billion yen (US$291.7 million), will be owned equally by Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric, the two companies said. The Tokyo-based firms set a sales target for the joint venture of 160 billion yen for the year to March 2007. "The global market outlook for industrial electric systems remains severe," with falling Japanese capital investment and increasingly tough global competition, Toshiba and Mitsubishi said in a joint statement. "Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba decided to integrate their businesses to enhance competitiveness and promote their presence in the overseas markets for industrial electric and automation systems." Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003