Business May. 12, 2008 - 06:57AM JST ( 0 )

TOKYO —

Victor Co of Japan, known as JVC, and Kenwood Corp will shortly sign a final agreement that they will set up a holding firm on Oct 1 to integrate their business operations, officials of the two companies said. JVC and Kenwood, which have been in talks on their business integration since last year, will announce details of the integration plan including merger ratios on Monday, the officials said.

For the envisaged holding company, the audio and video equipment makers have agreed to name Kenwood Chairman Haruo Kawahara as chairman and JVC President Kunihiko Sato as president.

Current Kenwood President Kazuo Shiohata will remain in office after the company, which is strong in the car navigation business, comes under the wing of the holding firm, while Hidetoshi Yoshida, a 51-year-old board director, will be promoted to the post of president of JVC, according to the officials.

JCN