SanDisk, the US flash-memory cardmaker being targeted by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, shored up its takeover defences on Monday by offloading $1bn of production equipment to Toshiba, its Japanese joint venture partner.

Under the deal, SanDisk will sell Toshiba a 15 per cent share of their manufacturing joint ventures in Japan. The agreement will give Toshiba, which is likely to pay cash of between $350m and $500m and assume some of SanDisk’s equipment lease obligations, an economic stake of 65 per cent. However, it will be structured so that Toshiba has sole ownership of some capacity while the rest is equally shared.