Panasonic has all but snared Sanyo after US Investment Bank Goldman Sachs said that it would agree to sell a 15.7 percent stake in the struggling Japanese electronics Company for 1.4 billion dollars.

Panasonic has all but snared Sanyo after US Investment Bank Goldman Sachs said that it would agree to sell a 15.7 percent stake in the struggling Japanese electronics Company for 1.4 billion dollars.

Goldman said its Oceans Holdings fund had signed an agreement to sell slightly more than half of its shares in Sanyo for 131 yen each as part of Panasonic’s takeover Sanyo.

Goldman said in a press release that they will retain a stake of 13.3 percent which it “may sell in the near future,”

Panasonic went after Sanyo late last year  in an effort to snare their Solar and energy divisions which are set to make batteries for a new generation of eco friendly cars and consumer electronic products.Panasonic said that they had aimed to announce the launch of the tender offer by late February but it has been delayed due to regulatory issues.

Sanyo, which started out making bicycle lamps after World War II, issued several billion dollars’ worth of stock to the clutch of financial heavyweights in 2006 to shore up its capital base.

It reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for the April-June quarter due to a slump in the electronic component business.

Recently Sanyo has tried to focus on environmental technologies — areas coveted by Panasonic, which is cutting 15,000 jobs and closing dozens of plants as it struggles to recover from its first annual loss for six years.