S.Korea carmaker Kia's shares jump 14.5% on Apple EV tie-up report

Hyundai Mobis

03/02/2021 05:05

SEOUL, Feb 3 (Reuters) - South Korea's Kia Corp  000270.KS 
shares surged to their highest in over two decades on Wednesday
after a local media report said the carmaker will sign a 4
trillion won ($3.59 billion) deal with Apple Inc  AAPL.O  to
build electric vehicles.
    Shares in Kia, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co  005380.KS ,
jumped as much as 14.5% to hit its highest since 1997 at 102,000
won on Wednesday.
    The rally came after South Korea's online news outlet
DongA.com reported that Apple would invest $3.6 billion in Kia
as they collaborate to produce Apple's electric vehicles in
Kia's Georgia plant, without citing any sources. The report said
the deal would be signed on Feb. 17.
    Apple will aim to produce 100,000 vehicles annually by 2024
at the Kia plant, the report said, aiming to expand that annual
capacity to 400,000 at a later stage.
    Apple and Hyundai declined to comment when contacted by
Reuters.
    Kia shares surged nearly 20% on Jan. 20 after a media report
said its parent Hyundai Motor Group had decided Kia would be in
charge of proposed cooperation with Apple on electric cars.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2JV048
    Kia at the time said it was reviewing cooperation on
self-driving electric cars with multiple foreign firms, without
mentioning the report linking it to a project with Apple.
    Reuters reported last week that Hyundai Motor Group has
"tentatively decided" that it would want Kia to partner with
Apple, citing a Hyundai insider.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K40X2
    Shares in Hyundai Motor were up 1.7%, while affiliates
Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd  012330.KS  and Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd
 086280.KS  rose 3.3% and 6.7% respectively as of 0319 GMT,
outperforming the 0.1% gain in South Korea's broader stock
market KOSPI  .KS11 . 

($1 = 1,114.4400 won)

 (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
 ((Heekyong.Yang@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 6936 1470;))