(Yicai Global) Oct. 10 -- Chinese home appliances behemoth TCL Corp. [SHE:000100] has divested a 49-percent stake in its loss-making smartphone manufacturing subsidiary, TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd., to three new strategic investors, Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., Yunnan Metropolitan Construction Investment Group Co. (YMCI) and venture capitalist Vivid Victory Developments, the company said in a press briefing yesterday.

TCL Corp. will remain the controlling shareholder in the firm while Unigroup and YMCI will hold 18-percent stakes respectively. Vivid Victory will take the remaining 13 percent.

The deal will ease the financial burden on TCL Corp., which has been driven by its ailing telecommunication business. The introduction of external investors with solid industry experience and business resources will help the firm to optimize its equity structure, the company said.

Tsinghua Unigroup boasts significant upstream industry resources in the cellphone chip platform, radio frequency and mixed-signal chipset, memory and other core component markets.

YMCI recently acquired an 8.8-percent stake in smartphone original design manufacturer Wingtech Technology Co. [SHA:600745] and has built a strong presence in the semiconductor wafers market. Vivid Victory Developments has a proven track record in successfully managing and investing in communications and consumer electronics businesses, TCL said.

TCL Communication Technology has been TCL Corp.'s largest loss-maker among all business lines in recent years.