LONDON (ShareCast) - Hewlett Packard (HP) has agreed to sell a 51% stake in its Chinese data-networking business H3C Technologies to local rival Tsinghua Unigroup for $2.3bn.
Tsinghua will also take on HP's $2.2bn debt, valuing the Chinese unit at $4.5bn.

The sale, which follows the restructuring of HP's Asian businesses, is expected to be completed by the end of this year, once regulators give their approval.

HP will retain a 49% stake in the company and will have the right to name H3C's chairman and chief executive officer, according to the Wall Street Journal.

HP also announced that it will form a partnership with Tsinghua Holdings, which affiliated with Tsinghua University, to create a group in the country to house its networking.

"Combining these two entities, the new H3C will be a technology powerhouse in China with a market-leading portfolio that will be #1 in networking and a leader in servers, storage and technology services," the company said in a statement.



"HP is making a bold move to win in today's China," said HP's chairman and CEO Meg Whitman.

"In one move, we have repositioned HP and H3C to accelerate overall performance and better serve our customers and partners," she added.

These announcements came the same day the California-based company announced its Q2 fiscal results, with a net revenue of $25.5bn.

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