Tokyo  - Japanese electronics companies Panasonic Corp and Sanyo Electric Co began negotiations Friday on a capital and business partnership.

The two companies plan to settle the talks by the end of December for Panasonic to undertake a tender offer in January to acquire a majority of shares in Sanyo and make it a subsidiary in April.

If the merger is successful, Panasonic would become Japan's largest electronics manufacturer.

Panasonic hopes to secure a basic agreement with Sanyo's three shareholders - Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, the Daiwa Securities SMBC group and the Goldman Sachs group.

Sanyo President Seiichiro Sano said the global financial crisis led his company to think about the sale by its major creditor financial institutions of their preferred shares in Sanyo "earlier than planned."

Sanyo, which agreed in principle to a tender offer by Panasonic, is the world's largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for personnel computers and mobile phones as well as a maker of solar batteries.

"We want to maximize our corporate value through the collaboration of the two companies, which have similar ideals," Panasonic President Fumio Otsubo said. (dpa)