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"Japanese tech firm Sharp has confirmed that it has close an agreement for a key $4.6 billion financing deal to help bail it out of the serious financial issues that are plaguing the 100-year-old company.\r\n\r\nA note on Sharp's investor site details the &amp;quot;working capital loan&amp;quot; which will see Mizuho Corporate Bank and Bank of Toyota-Mitsubishi UFJ lend the struggling company 180 billion yen, as part of a contract that ends 30 June 2013 and includes an equal sum in credit.\r\n\r\nThe much needed financial move -- which has been strongly rumored this week -- is seen as a major step for the firm, which produces parts for Apple's iPhone 5 among other things. Yesterday\u00A0Reuters explained\u00A0that the deal is &amp;quot;clearing a major obstacle to firm's survival&amp;quot;.\r\n\r\nSharp is still continuing to negotiate an investment deal with Hon Hai which would see the Foxconn parent take a 9.9 percent stake. Talks were tipped to close four weeks ago\u00A0but, with discussions still ongoing, the deal appears increasingly uncertain - although the financial boost is likely to give Sharp greater leverage.\r\n\r\nWhile waiting on Hon Hai, Sharp has mortgaged almost all of its Japanese factories to generate\u00A0$1.92 billion (150 billion yen) of credit.\r\n\r\nThis year has not been a good one for Sharp, to say the least. The firm has already trimmed 5,000 jobs and, just last week,\u00A0plans to lay-off 11,000 staff and generate $2.74 billion from asset sales were leaked to a Japanese news outlet.\r\n\r\nThose plans involve\u00A0the restructuring of firm's LCD TV business, strengthening its LCD panel business for smartphones, and cutting down its solar battery operations.\r\n\r\nBy selling its assets, Sharp believes it will be able to generate\u00A0213.1 billion yen ($2.74 billion) by March 2013, and it is aiming to\u00A0integrate its four domestic sales businesses no more than a month later.\r\n\r\nAt the end of August, Sharp announced that it had set aside close to $350 million (27 billion yen) to offer its staff voluntary redundancy packages. Employees looking to leave the company early were given an application deadline of between\u00A0November 1-14, estimating that 2,000 employees will be given the redundancy terms.\r\n\r\nThe retirement date was set for December 15, but it isn\u2019t known if the company will adapt those plans following the restructuring proposals and the confirmation of its loan.\r\n\r\nImage via Wikipedia"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2012/09/28/sharp-4-6-billion-deal/>