Japanese tech company Panasonic sold its entire stake in American automaker Tesla last fiscal year, helping it raise billions of dollars to fund new investments. reported on Friday by the Nikkei business newspaper.
In 2010, Panasonic acquired 1.4 million shares of Tesla at a price of $ 21.15 a share for about 2.4 billion yen ($ 21.65 million). Tesla is now worth $ 679.82 a share.
Tesla's price began to skyrocket in the spring of 2020, reaching at some point $ 900 per share, nine times its value at the end of March of that year, taking into account factors such as stock split.
All Tesla shares held by Panasonic were sold by the end of March. Profit accounted for most of the 429.9 billion yen (US $ 3.88 billion) in "proceeds from the sale and repayment of investments" in the company's consolidated cash flow statements for that fiscal year, which is about 380 billion yen more than the year earlier.
“Our relationship with Tesla as a business partner will not change in the future,” said a Panasonic executive.
After the Nikkei announced the sell-off on Friday morning, Panasonic's stock price jumped 4.53% in the morning session.
Earlier this year, Panasonic said it would buy shares in US-based supply chain software company Blue Yonder, which it does not yet own, in a $ 7.1 billion deal.
