Hitachi, Japan’s largest electronics maker, will focus investments on infrastructure-related businesses such as power plants as it seeks to compete with the likes of Germany’s Siemens and US’ General Electric, according to GulfNews.com.
Over the next three years, Hitachi – a sprawling conglomerate of 900 companies – will allocate about 70% of its 1.4 trillion yen (NZ$200 billion) budget for capital spending and strategic investments to businesses such as power plants, smart grids, cloud computing, batteries and railway systems.
The report quotes company president Hiroaki Nakanishi saying the company is becoming more aggressive toward expansion after years of cost-cutting.
Hitachi, which makes everything from nuclear power plants to rice cookers, also said it planned to further shed non-core businesses.
Nakanishi says he expect the number of its major business units to be reduced from the current 40 in the next few years.
Hitachi aims to boost the ratio of sales generated in overseas markets to more than half the total, up from 41% in the year ended in March, as it makes a push into emerging markets.
