TOKYO (AFP) — US giant Ford Motor Co. plans to sell most of its shares in Japan's Mazda to raise cash to it tide over a business slump amid the current global financial crisis, a press report said Saturday.
Ford has begun to sound out a number of Japanese companies on the planned share sale, public broadcaster NHK reported quoting unspecified sources.
NHK said Mazda Motor Corp. itself was expected to buy back some of the shares.
No Mazda official was immediately available for comment.
Ford is Mazda's biggest shareholder with a 33.6 percent equity, or 473,535,000 shares, according to the Japanese firm's website.
Ford is considering dumping about 20 percent of Mazda's shares to raise about 100 billion yen (one billion dollars), the report said, adding that it expected to remain a major shareholder in Japan's fifth largest automaker.
In July, Ford announced a record 8.7 billion-dollar loss in the second quarter largely due to hefty charges as Ford wrote down the value of its assets and recognized losses from auto leasing.
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