Report: Panasonic to Buy LED Lighting Company

Japan’s Panasonic Corp. is in talks to buy ZKW Group GmbH, an 88-year-old Austrian company that specializes in light-emitting-diode headlights, The Nikkei reports. The newspaper, which cites no sources, values the deal at about $1 billion and says the companies could reach a preliminary agreement by year-end.

Panasonic declined to comment.

Privately held ZKW anticipates sales of about €900 million ($960 million) this year. Key customers include BMW and General Motors.

Panasonic previously has said it is targeting sales of 2.1 trillion yen ($18.5 billion) for its automotive business for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. The total would be split among comfort, infotainment and cockpit systems ($8.3 billion); safety technology ($4.2 billion); and batteries and other green technologies ($6.2 billion).

The company aims to more than double its automobile battery sales alone to about $4 billion. The increase will be driven in part by Tesla Motors Inc.’s upcoming Model 3 car, for which Panasonic will be the exclusive battery supplier. The company also is partnering with Tesla on the carmaker’s $5 billion batterymaking “Gigafactory” in Nevada.