The Nikkei newspaper reported this weekend that state-backed INCJ wants to restructure Sharp’s solar business and merge it with Solar Frontier, as part of its offer to inject roughly ¥300bn ($2.5bn) into the troubled consumer-electronics giant.

Tokyo-based Solar Frontier, a unit of Showa Shell, told Recharge that it has "not received a concrete proposal so [is] not in a position to comment on it at this moment".

But