Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) have bolstered their cross-shareholding relationship in conjunction with their collaboration in the battery business, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.
Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, took a 0.84 percent stake in consumer electronics maker Matsushita for 40 billion yen ($320 million) in the year ended in March, the paper said.
Matsushita, which had a 0.57 percent stake in Toyota in the year ended in March 2006, has raised that holding by investing tens of billions of yen, it said, without specifying the size of the new stake.
The two firms together own Panasonic EV Energy Co., a maker of batteries for Toyota's hybrid vehicles.
