US carmaker Ford Motor has decided to sell the bulk of its 11 percent stake in Japan’s Mazda Motor and invest the money in emerging markets, reports said yesterday.
Ford, which has been the top shareholder in the Hiroshima-based automaker since 1979, plans to slash its equity stake of 11 percent to 3 percent or less, the Nikkei Shimbun said without naming its sources.
The two firms have reached a basic agreement on the deal, Nikkei said. The Mazda shares held by Ford are worth ¥42 billion (US$515 million) based on Friday’s closing price on the Tokyo stock market.
Jiji Press said Ford would use the money it gains through the sale to invest in emerging countries with high growth potential. The two companies are expected to make a formal decision next month, Jiji said.
Mazda, Japan’s fifth-largest automaker, declined to comment on the reports, saying they were “the result of speculation” by journalists.
“Mazda and Ford continue to enjoy a close strategic partnership and there is no change to this relationship. As before, we continue to cooperate in areas of mutual benefit. We do not comment on speculation,” it said in a statement.
Mazda spokesman Kotaro Minagawa said the company would neither confirm nor deny the reports.
The Nikkei said the shares were likely to go to Mazda’s main creditor, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, as well as trading house Sumitomo Corp and other Sumitomo group firms.
Once the sale is completed, Ford would be no longer be Mazda’s top shareholder, it said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford’s chief financial officer said the US and Japanese automakers would continue to work together but intend to compete separately in China, the world’s largest car market.
Lewis Booth, Ford’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in a recent interview with the paper that Ford has “had a 30-something-year history of working with Mazda and it’s going to continue.”
But Booth confirmed that Ford was seeking to dissolve its three-way venture in China between Ford, Mazda and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co (重慶長安汽車), with Mazda and Ford instead having two separate tie-ups with the Chinese company.
“We work on projects that make sense to the two of us and if they don’t make sense to the two of us, we don’t work on them,” Booth reportedly said of Ford’s relationship with Mazda.
“With the growth in China and the investment that each of us are going to make in China, we decided to split the joint venture,” he said.
Ford became Mazda’s top shareholder in 1979 after purchasing 25 percent of its outstanding shares. It raised the stake to 33.4 percent in 1996 to gain management control over the struggling Japanese company.
Ford has since reduced its stake to 11 percent due to the US carmaker’s need to raise badly needed cash during the recession and due to Mazda’s issuance of new shares.
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