Japanese electronics company Panasonic makes a move towards a new industry with its acquisition of U.S. refrigeration firm Hussmann for $1.5 billion or 186.6 billion yen. It marks another development in Panasonic's series of steps to expand beyond consumer electronics and target other "higher margin" operations in the global market.

According to a report from Reuters, Panasonic will be getting full ownership of the refrigeration firm. The electronics company acquired Hussmann from majority owner private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and industrial group Ingersoll Rand, who holds a 36.7 percent stake.

Panasonic chief executive Kazuhiro Tsuga announced the deal during a news conference, explaining the company's intentions behind the purchase of Hussmann.

"We want to make (this acquisition) a trigger to accelerate our global business," Kazuhiro Tsuga, Panasonic Chief Executive, told reporters at a news conference. "We are likely to actively pursue overseas acquisitions."

Venturing away from consumer electronics and finding a solid footing on business acquisitions are primary goals of Panasonic, who is reportedly targeting 2.5 trillion yen in sales in 2018. Out of this number, 300 billion is expected to come from food distribution.

The company's acquisition of Hussmann, who maintains a significant share of manufacturing and maintaining refrigerated and freezer display cases in the U.S., underlines their mission of succeeding outside of Asia and breaking into the international market.

A release in Business Wire revealed that Panasonic Corporation's Automotive & Industrial Systems Company is developing a production line for heat-resistant phenolic molding compounds, which is expected to be used in automotive parts.

The company set up production in Thailand as they anticipated the demand for automotive materials to increase in the region of Southeast Asia. Full-scale operations will reportedly begin in February 2016.

The continuous growth of Panasonic in the housing and automotive industries is in line with the plans that Tsuga stressed earlier this year when the company marked its highest gains in years. According to a report from Bloomberg, the CEO expressed the company's expectations to shell out 200 billion yen in strategic investments throughout the year in hopes of hitting 10 trillion yen in revenue by 2018.

"Business-to-business solutions and automotive are areas where there is a possibility of large scale acquisitions measuring in tens of billions of yen," Tsuga explained about their plans in the Bloomberg report. "In the automotive business, we have already secured 70 percent of the orders needed to meet our fiscal 2018 sales target."