Markets: Panasonic Sells Off Tesla Stake Worth $3.6B
- AutonomyGeneral
- June 25, 2021
- 254
- 4 minutes read
One of the major manufacturing partners of electric carmaker Tesla has sold its large stake in the company. That partner is Japan-based Panasonic, which sold its stake for about 400 billion yen ($3.6bn), the company has confirmed.
- Panasonic has been a strategic partner and early investor in Tesla for a long time. It bought shares worth $30mn back in 2010, the very year Tesla debuted on the public markets. That stake alone was worth $730mn at the end of March 2020.
- After investing $30mn in 2010, Panasonic bought more shares in Tesla over time. Now as it’s sold all of them for $3.6bn, that’s a very high return-on-investment, like many have made on Tesla.
- Panasonic says the sale of its stake won’t affect its partnership with Tesla. The electronics conglomerate is a major supplier of battery cells present in Tesla’s cars.
- Tesla itself has been seeking to diversify its supply chain to not rely majorly on a single supplier like Panasonic. At that, the company has added newer battery cell suppliers like China’s CATL and Korea’s LG Chem.
- Out of all, Panasonic has been Tesla’s oldest industrial partner and very crucial to its growth over the years.
- Tesla closed trading on Thursday at $679.82 per share, with a market cap of $655bn.
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