Japan's Panasonic Corp. plans regarding Sanyo Electric Co. have been hastened by the global economic turmoil. Panasonic Corp. is also on the verge of deciding to keep Sanyo Electric Co’s shares listed in TSE after its decision to turn Sanyo into a subsidiary unit by next spring.

Panasonic has taken the decision as it thinks it is important to project Sanyo as a brand.

"After the financial crisis that hit in September, I felt the need to come up with specific solutions, and quickly," Seiichiro Sano, chief executive of Sanyo, said Friday.

"The economic outlook is very unforgiving, and it's becoming difficult to grow profits," Panasonic Chief Executive Fumio Otsubo said. "We desperately need another engine of growth," he added.

Though Panasonic is still to come to a conclusion about share it plans to offer to Sanyo or whether it would sell off pieces of the company. Credit Suisse analyst Koya Tabata disclosed that Panasonic could offer as much as 140 yen per Sanyo share. This would be  a premium of about 40% to Sanyo's market value last week.