S.Korea's SsangYong Motor looking for possible buyer as Mahindra may exit (updated)

Samsung Securities Co

19/06/2020 12:11

(Adds details on share price jump, Geely denial and BYD's no
comment)
    By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin
    SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - South Korean sports-utility
vehicle maker SsangYong Motor  003620.KS  is looking for a
potential buyer after India's Mahindra and Mahindra  MAHM.NS 
said it could give up its majority stake in the struggling
company. 
    SsangYong has picked an advisor to tap markets for a new
investor, a spokesman for the South Korean company said on
Friday.
    Shares in the carmaker closed up 30% after South Korean
media, citing unnamed sources, said on Friday that China's Geely
 0175.HK  and BYD  002594.SZ   1211.HK  might be interested in
SsangYong, which is 74.65% owned by Mahindra and Mahindra. 
    A representative for Geely, however, said the carmaker has
no plan to participate in any bidding for SsangYong. Electric
vehicle maker BYD declined to comment.
    South Korean media said SsangYong had picked Samsung
Securities  016360.KS  to tap the market for interest, working
with its global strategic partner Rothschild. 
    Samsung Securities and Rothschild declined to comment and
SsangYong would not confirm the name of its advisor.
    SsangYong is burdened with high debt and reported its 13th
consecutive quarterly operating loss in January-March. It  
suffered from sluggish sales even before the spread of COVID-19
due to tough competition in the sports-utility vehicle (SUV)
market. 
    An executive at Mahindra said last week that the Indian
company was willing to let go of its ownership stake in
SsangYong.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2DO0OT 
    The stake at is valued at 332 billion won ($274.59
million)as of Friday's stock market closing. 

    ($1 = 1,209.0700 won)

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting
by Aditi Shah in New Delhi and Yilei Sun in Beijing; editing by
Jason Neely and Susan Fenton)
 ((jungyoon.lee@tr.com; +82 2 6936 1467;))