India's Videocon buys TV plant from Thomson

BANGALORE, India — Indian consumer electronics and white goods manufacturer Videocon Ltd., has bought a television tube manufacturing facility from Thomson of France, according to news reports from Paris Thursday (Jan. 27).

The deal is part of the French company's strategy to exit the low-margin electronics business and instead focus on the media and entertainment business. Thomson has spun off its television set manufacturing business into a venture with TCL of China.

According to reports, Videocon gets Thomson's manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy, which employs about 1,500 and has sales of $300 million. Videocon intends to build a TV manufacturing facility in Europe around the Anagni plant.

Thomson has closed similar plants in the U.S., but retains similar plants in China, Mexico and Poland. Details on the deal and its implications are expected over the next few days.

Videocon is among the leading Indian companies in consumer electronics, many of whom have been recently battered by aggressive marketing from Korean companies such as LG and Samsung of South Korea.

Several years ago, BPL, another Indian consumer electronics company, set up assembly plants in Europe to market TVs in the U.K. But little is known of that plan now, with the group in disarray because of a battle for ownership within the family that owns it.