Matsushita Electric Picks National Panasonic India

National Panasonic India has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co with the Japanese major increasing its stake in the Indian company from 80 per cent to 100 per cent.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board had recently given the go-ahead for the move. The 20 per cent equity acquired by the Japanese company was earlier with its partner Salora and other domestic entities.

National Panasonic India handles the marketing of the products manufactured by Matsushita Television & Audio India under the Panasonic brand name.

In the manufacturing company, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co of Japan holds 55 per cent , 25 per cent is with Salora while the remaining is held by the public.

 

At a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday, the company announced that Matsushita Electric, on August 26, became the first company globally to achieve the 200 million television sets milestone in global cumulative production.

In India, the company claims to have sold 180,000 television sets ever since Matsushita Television & Audio India was set up in December 1996.

The Indian operations has a target of selling 90,000 television sets this year . The company sees sales of 1,00,000 television sets as the threshold level for breaking even. So far, it has accumulated losses of Rs 30 crore.

The company sees immense potential in the audio-visual industry as the trend shifts from analog to digital.

This year, Panasonic will introduce nine new television models with many digital functions including Digital Sophia (three models), New Sophia (three models) and the Elegance series (three models). Five new audio models are also on the anvil which include four new AK series of Mini-compo category including AK-55, with an output of 2,500 watts with Dolby prologic, and portable fashion CD of 140 watts with digital synthesised tuner.