Panasonic To Sell Nickle-Hydride Battery Biz To Hunan Corun New Energy

**Admin** Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:06 am

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Panasonic Corp. (6752) said Tuesday it will sell its nickel-metal-hydride battery business to Chinese battery maker Hunan Corun New Energy Co. in Hunan Province for about 500 million yen.

Panasonic's subsidiary Shonan Energy factory in Chigasaki, Kanagawa.

In making Sanyo Electric Co. (6764) its subsidiary, Panasonic was asked by Chinese antitrust authorities to sell the nickel-hydride-battery business and was looking for a candidate at home and abroad.

Panasonic's Shonan factory in the city of Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, manufactures nickle-metal-hydride batteries for electric vehicles for Honda Motor Co. (7267) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)

Panasonic's battery business has annual sales of about 10 billion yen. The company will move its related assets to wholly-owned subsidiary Shonan Energy Co. and sell all the Shonan Energy stock Panasonic holds to the Chinese firm by the end of April.

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