Japan-based Sharp Corporation, part of Taiwan’s Foxconn Group, enters into a strategic business alliance with Skytec Group Limited (“Skytec”) regarding the manufacture and sale of Sharp branded products and services in Europe. For that purpose, Sharp acquires a majority stake of 56.7% in the newly incorporated joint venture Skytec UMC Ltd.

Skytec UMC Ltd. is the holding company of the operating companies Universal Media Corporation/Slovakia/s.r.o. and UMC Poland Sp. z o.o. Through Skytec UMC Ltd., Sharp and Skytec will be running together the UMC Group’s business of designing, manufacturing and distributing Sharp branded TVs in Europe. Skytec and Sharp aim at organically integrating the resources possessed by the Sharp group, such as the brands and liquid crystal panels, with the business sales capabilities possessed by Skytec.

Walder Wyss acts as advisor to Skytec in all legal aspects of the transaction. The team is led by Stefan Knobloch (Partner, Corporate/M&A) and further includes Christian Lütolf (Associate, Corporate/M&A) and Reto Jacobs (Partner, Competition).