By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock was higher by 0.8% in Friday’s premarket trade in the U.S. and Panasonic (T:6752) closed nearly 5% up in Tokyo trading as the Japanese company said it has sold its stake in the electric vehicle maker.
The stake sale removes an overhang on Tesla shares and allows the companies to chart their own paths in the electric ecosystem.
Panasonic, Tesla's largest battery supplier, sold its stake for about 400 billion yen ($3.61 billion) in the year ended March, a spokesperson for the consumer electronics giant said on Friday. It will use the proceeds in part to finance the recent acquisition of software company Blue Yonder.
Panasonic's action will not affect the partnership with Tesla, the spokesperson said.
The sale comes as the automaker seeks news partners to make batteries.
Tesla has struck deals with South Korea's LG and China's CATL, with Reuters reporting that the latter is planning a plant in Shanghai near the automaker's production base.