Panasonic sold its stake in electric car maker Tesla for
about JPY 400 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.
Panasonic's battery business is dominated by Elon Musk's
Tesla, but the two firms have had a tense relationship at times with executives
trading barbs publicly.
Panasonic bought 1.4 million Tesla shares at $21.15 each in
2010 for about $30 million. That stake was worth $730 million at the end of March 2020. The shares have
gained almost seven fold since then and closed up 3.5 percent at $679.82 apiece
on Thursday.
"The impact of cryptocurrency assets may have pushed
Tesla's share price above its intrinsic value, making it a good time to
sell," said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute.
Musk said in February his firm bought Bitcoin and would take
payment in the cryptocurrency, a decision he later reversed, and his comments
on Twitter drive swings in the price of such assets. Bitcoin price in India
stood at Rs. 25.3 lakhs as of 12:45pm IST on June 25.
While Panasonic gave financial backing to Tesla when it was
smaller, the automaker's expansion means there's no need for capital ties,
Yasuda added. Panasonic's shares were up 4.2 percent on Friday.
The stake sale will not affect the partnership with Tesla,
the Panasonic spokesperson said, but comes as the automaker is diversifying its
own battery supply chain.
Tesla has struck deals with South Korea's LG Energy
Solution, a unit of LG, and China's CATL, with Reuters reporting the latter is
planning a plant in Shanghai near the automaker's production base.
Panasonic said earlier this year it would buy the shares of
US supply-chain software company Blue Yonder that it does not already own, in a
$7.1 billion deal. Its biggest such deal in a decade, the price raised the
eyebrows of analysts who pointed to the firm's spotty M&A track record.
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