‘GSR nears US$1b deal for control of Nissan unit’

TOKYO: GSR Capital is nearing a deal to acquire control of a Nissan Motor Co rechargeable battery unit for about US$1 billion (RM4.27 billion), said sources.

The firm was in advanced talks with Nissan about buying a stake in Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC), said sources.

The parties aim to announce an agreement within the next two weeks, said the people. The Yangtze River Industry Fund is contributing at least 20 per cent of the GSR Capital fund doing the AESC deal, said sources.

Nissan owns 51 per cent of AESC, while NEC Corp holds the remainder. Shares of NEC rose as much as 3.2 per cent yesterday, the most in a month, and traded at 288 yen as of 2:30pm, here.

GSR Capital saw value in building an independent battery supplier to multiple carmakers and was considering moving some of AESC’s manufacturing to Hubei, said the people.

The Chinese province recently earmarked 547 billion yuan (RM341 billion) for investments to modernise its economy. Bloomberg