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Nippon Sheet Glass able to repay loans for Pilkington in several yrs+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 25_(Kyodo) _ Nippon Sheet Glass Co. will be able to repay the loans taken out for the acquisition of major British glass maker Pilkington plc in several years, Chairman Yozo Izuhara said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. Asked whether the acquisition would be a burden on his company, Izuhara, 67, said, "The amount of the company's borrowings for the acquisition...is about 140 billion yen and it is not a big amount...We will be able to repay the loans in several years." "We had been thinking of the acquisition since around 2001 and have prepared well for it through such measures as selling subsidiaries," he said. On Feb. 27, Nippon Sheet Glass announced it will acquire Pilkington by June for 1.8 billion pounds, or about 358.5 billion yen, to make the British glassmaker a wholly-owned subsidiary. The deal enables Nippon Sheet Glass, which already holds about 20 percent of Pilkington's outstanding shares, to match the current global industry leaders Asahi Glass Co. and France's Saint-Gobain SA in terms of market share. Izuhara said the acquisition will help complement operations of the Japanese and British companies "geographically and technologically." He expects Pilkington to increase its product shipments for Japanese automakers operating in Europe, he said, adding his company has excellent coating technology for glass for use in automobiles, while Pilkington is outstanding in glass-bending technology. "We will be able to boost our competitiveness by merging those technologies," Izuhara said. Although Nippon Sheet Glass has limited experience in the global market as 85 percent of its sales are domestic, he said his company will supplement the lack of experience by leaving the overseas operation to the operator there. "I think it is better that Nippon Sheet Glass makes the decisions on major targets and policies and let (overseas operators) take care of their actual operations. We will come up with the best form of operations in a year or so," Izuhara said. |