Perhaps it was predestined. When France's Thomson announced on November 3 that it was in effect shedding its TV manufacturing business to a partner called TCl, few people had heard of the other firm. Was it a surprise? Not to TCl's chairman li Dongsheng. His Western name is Thomson. For the French company, this is a neat exit from a business in which it lost around €60 million (US$56 million) last year. Thomson gets a 33 per cent stake in the joint venture with TCl International the mainland group's Hong Kong-listed subsidiary.