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Chinese appliance giant Suning Appliance Co. will buy a 27.36-percent stake in Japanese electronics retailer LAOX Co., becoming its biggest shareholder, Suning announced Wednesday.
This would be the first purchase of a major stake in a Japanese public company by a Chinese firm.
Suning will invest 800 million yen (8.4 million U.S. dollars) to buy 66.67 million LAOX shares, at 12 yen per share. Suning will also appoint two representatives to LAOX's board.
"As a listed company with transparent information and controllable risks, LAOX is worthy of our investment," said Sun Weimin, Suning's president.
Suning, based in eastern Nanjing City, is China's second-largest home appliance chain. It runs 800 stores in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.
"We hope to learn business practices from Western and Japanese companies. Japan's consumer electronics retail market is similar to that in China," Sun said.
LAOX, founded in 1930, has 10 stores selling appliances, computers, telecommunications products, animated games, toy models and musical instruments. It has been struggling to deal with a slowdown in consumer spending and price-cutting competition.
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