Johnson Controls in joint hybrid auto venture, $2.5B debt offer
Laptop Battery By WTN News • 01/11/06 Johnson Controls, the largest Wisconsin public company by revenue, has officially launched a previously announced partnership with a French company to make batteries for hybrid vehicles. It has also made a commercial debt offering totaling $2.5 billion, to refinance an acquisition of a building controls company it bought in December.
As previously reported on WTN, Johnson Controls established a $4 million development facility in Glendale, Wisconsin, to push forward its hybrid-electric vehicle business.
The partnership with Saft in Paris will focus on two kinds of batteries, nickel metal hydride, which are now used in hybrid vehicles, and lithium-ion, which the companies hope to commercialize further because, they said, it has greater power in a smaller-sized battery.
Business Journal of Milwaukee: Johnson Controls launches joint venture; prices $2.5B debt offer
A GM spokesman says the auto financing venture should start doing business soon in China, and will offer financing for vehicles manufactured by the automaker's joint ventures with China's Shanghai Automotive Group.Rival automakers Toyota ( TM), Volkswagen AG ( VLKPY) and Ford ( F) have also applied to offer auto financing in China.
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