The division is responsible for making coffee machines, irons, and vacuum cleaners
Translated by Thomas Ansell
Electronics giant Philips has sold part of its home products business to the Chinese investment vehicle Hillhouse Capital. The division employs 200 people in Drachten, Friesland, and another 600 in Amsterdam; none of whom will be immediately affected. In total, Philips Domestic Appliances has 7,500 employees, across five factories so this is quite a small relative sale. The division apparently no longer fits in with the companies’ long-term strategy.
Philips has raised 4.4 billion euros from the sale, reports the Dagblad van het Norden. Following the sale of its coffee machine, irons, air fryers; and vacuum cleaner business, the company will reportedly focus on making electronics for use in personal care and in medicine. Drachten’s Philips shaver concern will continue as part of the personal care division, safeguarding the 2,000 workers in Drachten for the moment.
The Omrop Fryslan reports that the 200 workers in Drachten that will be transferred to the new business work mainly in research and development. In general, the business is expected to continue as before, but a new name will be announced shortly. Previously Philips’ lighting business was split off in a similar manner to form ‘Signify’.
Hillhouse Capital has paid 3.7 billion euros for the business itself, along with another 700 million euros to lease the Philips name and brand for the next 15 years. The investment vehicle was started in 2005 by Lei Zhang, who is reportedly worth about 5.5 billion US dollars personally. His investment vehicles have around 100 billion dollars of capital, with much of this in technology companies.
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