TOKYO -Panasonic Corp sold its stake in electric car maker Tesla Inc for about 400 billion yen (US$3.61 billion) in the year ended March, a spokesperson for the Japanese company said on Friday.
The sale comes as the bicycles to hair dryers conglomerate is seeking to reduce its dependence on Tesla and raise cash for investing in growth.
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Panasonic’s battery business is dominated by Elon Musk’s Tesla, but the two firms have had at times a tense relationship with executives trading barbs publicly.
Panasonic bought 1.4 million Tesla shares at US$21.15 each in 2010 for about US$30 million. That stake was worth US$730 million at the end of March 2020. Shares have gained almost seven fold since then and closed up 3.5per cent at US$679.82 apiece on Thursday.
The stake sale will not affect the partnership with Tesla, the Panasonic spokesperson said, but comes as the automaker is moving to diversify its own battery supply chain.
Panasonic said earlier this year it would buy the shares of U.S. supply-chain software company Blue Yonder https://www.reuters.com/business/panasonic-says-it-will-buy-us-supply-chain-software-firm-blue-yonder-2021-04-23 that it does not already own, in a US$7.1 billion deal.
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Panasonic shares were up 4.5per cent on Friday, on track for their biggest daily rise since January.
(US$1 = 110.8700 yen)
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Tim Kelly, Sam Nussey and Shinji Kitamura; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Himani Sarkar)