Wither Mazda?
Reports on the future of Ford’s stake in Mazda are bubbling-up at a furious rate. And it appears that Mazda wants Ford gone in the interests of stability as much as Ford wants out in the interests of cash. Bloomberg reports that Ford will keep some portion of of its $1.33b holding in Mazda, but desperately needs to free-up some cash and free itself from a stock position that has dropped 50 percent this year. The problems start with finding a buyer though, and Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford has asked supplier giant Denso to buy in. Weirdly though, the Nikkei report cited by AN says Denso would only buy about one percent of Mazda, leaving about 32 percent in Ford’s hands. A larger chunk of that Ford stake could end up being controlled by a keiretsu, a network of Japanese corporations that own stakes in one another. Sumitomo Corp. and Itochu Corp could be joined by Denso and others, in a cooperative effort similar to that which bought Mitsubishi after Daimler backed out of its controlling stake in that firm. Whomever ends up buying Mazda could end up with something of a steal though. A weak stock price belies Mazda’s solid product pipeline, and with all-new 6 and 3 models replacing long-soldiering outgoing models, a turnaround could be in the offing. Too bad Ford doesn’t have the security to gut it out a bit longer.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Honda buys GM
@quasimondo, An AWD Miata. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.... Sorry. Hmmmmmm" would be for an AWD, ROTARY Miata
If Ford has a $1.33b holding in Mazda, and they sell off a portion of that, is that really enough cash to stave off bankruptcy for more than a couple months? Why bother?