OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will form an alliance with Chinese home appliance maker TCL Holdings Co. to engage in sales and product development in China, a company official said Tuesday.
Details of the tieup will be worked out later, but Matsushita is expected to consign to TCL sales of its products and cooperate with it in product development, the official said.
The deal would be the second tieup between a major Japanese consumer electronics maker and a Chinese counterpart, following one in January between Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan and Haier Group Co., China's largest consumer electronics maker.
Matsushita President Kunio Nakamura was slated to sign an agreement with TCL in China on Tuesday, the official added.
Matsushita's sales networks are located mainly in coastal metropolitan areas. The Japanese firm hopes it can take advantage of TCL's vast sales network, which reaches inland cities, to boost sales of its products made locally in China, the official said.
In return, TCL, which is a top maker of television sets in China, apparently hopes to obtain advanced technology from Matsushita related to products that include digital TVs and other home information appliances.