Sharp Corp may sell its Chinese TV assembly plant to Lenovo Group as the cash-strapped Japanese TV maker looks to sell assets to bolster its finances, which would allow Lenovo full access to the TV sector,  sources said.

Sharp is in talks with technology firm Lenovo about selling the LCD TV assembly plant in Nanjing, East China's  Jiangsu Province, and also about tying up with Lenovo in its other subsidiaries there, two industry sources familiar with the discussion told Reuters.

Sharp said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange that it had not announced any talks. The talks were first reported by the Nikkei business daily in Japan.

The maker of Aquos TVs said in November it may not be able to survive on its own after it doubled its full-year net loss to $5.6 billion. To repay short-term commercial paper loans and stave off failure in October it won a $4.4 billion bailout from its banks.

Sharp had been in talks to sell its Chinese TV plant to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry along with an assembly plant in Mexico.

Hon Hai, which is also in talks to buy a stake in Sharp and earlier bought a share in Sharp's LCD panel plant in Sakai in western Japan, may now buy only the North American facility.