Philips is selling its household apparatus unit to Chinese investment company Hillhouse Capital for €3.7bn. Hillhouse was one of three Chinese firms bidding to buy the unit, which makes Senseo coffee makers, irons, vacuum cleaners and air-fryers. The Dutch electronics giant said a year ago it planned to offload its domestic appliance division to focus purely on health technology and personal care items.

The unit has a global workforce of 7,000 and its research and development centre is in Drachten. Much of the production takes place in Asia and turnover this year is projected to be €2.3bn.

Philips sold its lighting, television and chip divisions several years ago.