Bic Camera Co. will acquire an absolute majority of outstanding voting shares in Sofmap Co., an electric appliance retailer with strength in purchasing and selling used personal computers, for 2 billion yen next month, the two firms said Thursday.

Under the deal, Bic Camera, a major electric appliance store chain, will acquire 5,100,000 common shares and 7,577,500 preferred shares in Sofmap on Feb. 28 through a third-party allotment with the aim of boosting their business alliance, especially in the used PC business.

By obtaining the new shares, Bic Camera will have a 61.56 percent stake in Sofmap, up from 14.47 percent.

"PCs are one of our main products and we believe obtaining expertise in secondhand products should boost customers' convenience, such as by accepting products from customers," said Masaaki Kanazawa, managing director of Bic Camera.

Sofmap President Katsuji Sakuramoto said at the same news conference the company has been suffering from sluggish sales in recent years due to falling product prices and competition from rivals, but it aims to make "a V-shaped recovery" from the next fiscal year by sharing expertise and enhancing cooperation in distribution and original product development under the deal.

Sofmap projects that it will incur an extraordinary loss of about 9 billion yen in its current business year through the end of February due to impairment of fixed assets, but that having liability in excess of assets can be avoided by the issuance of new shares.

Sofmap revised its earnings projections for the current business year the same day and now expects to incur a group net loss of 9.3 billion yen on sales of 100 billion yen, compared with its October projection of a net loss of 460 million yen on sales of 101.4 billion yen.