TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Panasonic Corp on Wednesday reported a 15 percent fall in second-quarter operating profit, missing analyst estimates, weighed down by investment in Tesla Inc’s battery plant in Nevada.
Panasonic, the exclusive battery cell supplier for new electric vehicles (EVs) made by Tesla, posted profit of 95.2 billion yen(661.36 million pounds) for the July-September period, versus 112.7 billion yen a year prior.
The result compared with the 112.60 billion yen average of 7 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
Panasonic maintained its profit forecast for the year through March at 425 billion yen, versus a 432.51 billion yen estimate from 20 analysts.
($1 = 113.2100 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
