Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may seek to increase its stake in Sanyo Electric Co., challenging Panasonic Corp.’s plans to take over the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries.

The New York-based bank may offer to buy the shares from Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., said Hiroko Matsumoto, a Goldman spokeswoman in Tokyo. Goldman earlier today spurned Panasonic’s offer of 130 yen a share, or 23 percent less than Sanyo’s closing price yesterday, a person familiar with the matter said.

A bid by Goldman would force Panasonic to raise its offer or abandon the biggest acquisition in Japan’s consumer-electronics industry. The latest proposal values the 70 percent stake owned by the three banks at 557 billion yen ($6 billion), almost double what they paid in 2006.

“The move seems to be a defensive action by Goldman to force Panasonic to raise the price, but I’m not sure if it would work as Panasonic is in a better position to take its time on any deal,” said Osamu Hirose, an analyst with Tokai Tokyo Research Center in Tokyo. “If need be, Panasonic can scrap the purchase as long as it forms business alliances with Sanyo.”

Sanyo lost 12 percent to close at 148 yen in Tokyo trading, taking its loss for the year to 3.9 percent. Shares of Panasonic, the world’s largest maker of consumer electronics, dropped 5.2 percent to 1,034 yen.

Goldman decided not to accept Panasonic’s offer and will consider other options including its right of first refusal to buy Sanyo shares, Matsumoto said. “We don’t believe this process and price is fair for all of Sanyo’s shareholders.”

‘Favorably Consider’

Kenichi Kanda, a spokesman at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., said the company would “favorably” consider Panasonic’s offer and declined to comment on how it would deal with Goldman’s first-refusal right.

Chika Togawa, a spokeswoman at Sumitomo Mitsui, and Akira Kadota, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Panasonic, declined to comment.

Buying Sanyo would bolster Panasonic’s rechargeable-battery operations, currently unranked among the world’s top five, and enable the company to enter the solar-cell business.

The maker of Panasonic-brand electronics gained Sanyo’s support in November for control of the battery maker. That cleared the way for talks with Goldman, Daiwa and Sumitomo, which together hold preferred stock equivalent to about a 70 percent stake in Sanyo, received when they bailed out the company for 300 billion yen in 2006.

Sanyo was the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries by unit sales in 2007, while Panasonic was in sixth place, according to Institute of Information Technology Ltd., a Tokyo-based researcher.

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 4, 2008 03:22 EST