On 14 November 2017, advised by King & Wood Mallesons (“KWM”), Hisense Electric Co., Ltd. ("Hisense Electric"), a publicly listed subsidiary of Hisense Group, signed a share purchase agreement with Toshiba Corporation ("Toshiba") to acquire 95% stock shares of Toshiba Visual Solutions Corporation ("TVS").

After the completion of the acquisition, Hisense Electric will obtain a package business of TVS’s products, brands, operation services, etc., and will get worldwide 40-year license for Toshiba–branded TV. The purchase price is estimated at 12.9 billion Japanese Yen and the transaction is expected to be closed by the end of February 2018.

Hisense Electric is one of the leading household appliance listed companies in China. Hisense TV has enjoyed the largest market share for 13 consecutive years in China, and was ranked third globally in 2015 and 2016. This transaction is an essential step to promote Hisense’s strategy plan for internationalization. TVS mainly operates the business relating to Toshiba –branded TVs and a variety of peripheral products.  With an excellent R&D team in Japan, it owns profound technical strength in TV picture quality, chips and audio. In 2016, Toshiba –branded TVs was ranked top three in sales volume in Japanese market.

KWM acts as counsel for Hisense Electric in this transaction. KWM Tokyo, Beijing and Qingdao offices worked together to provide all-round legal services including due diligence, negotiation of agreements, and global antitrust filing and analysis.

The responsible partners of this project are Wang Kaiding, Kate Peng, and Guo Guiying from KWM Beijing office, Chen Tianhua from KWM Tokyo office, and Gu Wenjiang and Shi Xin from KWM Qingdao office.