Visteon, the US-based car parts supplier once owned by Ford, is reported to be working with two investment banks to consider a sale of the company or a variety of asset sales.
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The process of evaluating “strategic moves” at Visteon mirrors this week’s decision by Ford to hire Kenneth Leet, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, in an advisory role to chief executive Bill Ford, the Financial Times (FT) said on Friday.
Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase are the two banks engaged by Visteon, people familiar with the matter told the paper. Both have deep relationships with the car parts maker, which narrowly escaped bankruptcy last year but has continued to be held back by turmoil in the US car industry, the FT added.
The report said that hopes that Citigroup and JP Morgan might engineer a buy-out of Visteon, or significantly bolster the company’s prospects through asset sales, sent its shares up 28%.
The news about Visteon, first reported in Debtwire, came only a day after the car industry was shaken by Ford’s announcement that its second-quarter loss would be more than double what it reported last month, the paper said, noting that Ford’s share of the US market – which also drives the performance of Visteon – fell from more than 20% a year ago to 16.1% in July.
The FT also noted that Visteon has been undergoing an aggressive restructuring in recent months, and encouraged analysts with its latest set of results, which showed a return to profitability – last year, former owner Ford acquired a number of plants and high-cost workers from Visteon as part of a bail-out plan.
