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Sharp says investment from Taiwan's Hon Hai off the table

Sharp says investment from Taiwan's Hon Hai off the table

By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 26 March 2013 14:44 IST

Sharp said Tuesday that a capital injection from Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision was off the table, as the deadline passed for a deal seen as crucial for the troubled Japanese electronics giant.

Last year, Sharp announced an investment agreement then valued at about $800 million with Hon Hai, which makes Apple gadgets in China, but the deal stalled as the Japanese firm's share price nosedived.

Months of speculation over the fate of the deal followed as cash-strapped Sharp sought out other investors, including US-based chipmaker Qualcomm and South Korean rival Samsung.

Sharp confirmed the agreement - which would have given Hon Hai nearly 10 percent of the firm - was dead as the Tuesday deadline passed. Sharp said the pact faltered because it could not win approval from the "relevant authorities", without elaborating.

The firm, which is struggling to repair a tattered balance sheet, said it was "examining the possibility of other ways of funding due to the unfulfillment of this payment".

Like rivals Sony and Panasonic, the maker of Aquos-brand electronics has been hammered by credit rating downgrades and record losses, which saw the century-old firm warn about its own survival last year.

Sharp has embarked on a painful restructuring including thousands of job cuts and slashed wages from the factory floor to the boardroom.

It also said it would put up real estate as collateral for desperately needed bank loans, including its Osaka headquarters.

Hon Hai officials in Taipei were not immediately available for comment.

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