The Anchor board members would continue to hold the remaining 20 per cent, a senior Anchor official said today. The new Anchor board would have six Matsushita officials while four members of the Shah family would be in the top management body.

The acquisition would help Matsushita gain entry into the “growing but unorganised and fragmented” Indian electrical market, Anchor managing director Atul Shah told reporters here today. “We decided to partner with Matsushita for its research and development (R&D) and technology to complement our brand value, network and product line up. The partnership will help us to expand our product category,” he said.

Matsushita expects to recover the Rs 2,000-crore investment in Anchor over a period of seven years, the new Anchor chairman, Toshihide Arii, said. Arii is a Matsushita representative.

Anchor’s sales for March 2006-07 were Rs 920 crore. “We expect to double our sales to Rs 1,800 crore by 2011 and target to grow 10 times in the next decade,” Shah informed.

Matsushita’s group sales for March 2006 were $13.73 billion, Arii said. The acquisition of a majority stake in Anchor would help Matsushita increase group sales and current market share in Asia, he added. The acquisition of the Anchor stake will hike Matsushita’s Asian market share from 30.5 to 36 per cent.

Earlier, Anchor was considering raising of funds through the capital markets but opted for the Matsushita deal because of the Japanese giant’s R&D prowess and technology support.

Mumbai-based Anchor is India’s top maker of electrical construction materials (ECM) such as lighting fixtures and electric wires.

“(India’s) infrastructure-related sector including construction and electricity is recording a particularly high growth rate, with expectations for a rapid, continued expansion of the wiring devices and the whole ECM market,” Matsushita Electric Works said in a statement.

The Osaka-based company, which aims to boost its overseas sales to 320 billion yen by the year to March 2011 from 222 billion yen in the year that ended March 2006, said the investment is fully self-financed. Ahead of the announcement, shares in Matsushita Electric Works closed down 0.1 per cent at 1,325 yen, roughly in line with the Nikkei average.