Hyundai Motor has denied weekend newspaper reports that it is interested in acquiring Chrysler.
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“We are not considering to buy Chrysler because our hands are full,” Hyundai spokesman Jake Jang told the Associated Press (AP), in response to a report in the UK’s The Times newspaper that it was among companies interested in bidding for the Chrysler Group.
According to AP, The Times reported on its web site, without citing specific sources, that Hyundai was thought to be interested in joining possible bidders for Chrysler, and that the Korean automaker was believed to be interested in gaining access to Chrysler’s US dealer network.
The Times also said that China’s SAIC and Chery were interested in bidding.
On Monday, the newspaper’s website said that it had learned that US investment bank and Chrysler adviser JPMorgan was about to formally begin a GBP7bn auction of the US automaker by sending information memorandums to a number of potential suitors as early as this week.
The bank is to release data that include private information on Chrysler, such as figures on its current trading, The Times said, adding that it also understood that a number of interested bidders started basic due diligence on Chrysler weeks before parent DaimlerChrysler said that all options for its US car firm were being considered.
AP noted that speculation regarding Chrysler has intensified since last Wednesday when DC chairman Dieter Zetsche said the automaker would not rule out a possible sale of its US operations, which it acquired in 1998, and that all options were open.
The US trade paper Automotive News last week said General Motors was in talks to acquire Chrysler but GM and Chrysler officials declined to comment on the report.
Jang told the Associated Press that Hyundai currently has an engine alliance with Chrysler and Mitsubishi Motors under which Hyundai allows those companies to manufacture engines based on a Hyundai design.
The news agency also noted that Hyundai is in the middle of an aggressive overseas expansion, with plants either completed or under construction in the United States, China and the Czech Republic while affiliate Kia Motors’ expansion plans include a factory in the United States.
According to The Times, “banking sources close to events” have said that talks between DaimlerChrysler and potential bidders for Chrysler were at an early stage.
