Parent Plans Select Sharing on Chrysler

Associated Press

By SVEN GUSTAFSON 02.23.07, 9:42 AM ET- - DaimlerChrysler AG, which is examining options for its struggling American arm, will offer detailed financial information on the Chrysler Group on a selective basis to potential buyers, a senior company official close to the situation said Friday.

The automaker and its investment bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., plan to offer company information judiciously in order to avoid divulging sensitive information and to focus negotiations only on qualified buyers, the official told The Associated Press on the condition of not being identified by name because the information is confidential.

"It's not an auction," said the official. "There will be some firms that will be allowed in to look at it and there will be a prospectus that will be presented to them."

The official said the automaker was assembling a list of potential suitors but would not identify them. Details about the prospectus were reported Friday in The Wall Street Journal.

At least four private-equity groups have had preliminary talks about buying Chrysler, according to a report Friday in the Financial Times newspaper.

Apollo Management, the Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Cerberus Capital Management, along with several European private-equity groups, were contacted about a potential buyout before DaimlerChrysler announcement, the newspaper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen AG spokeswoman Christine Ritz said Europe's biggest automaker was not interested in acquiring money-losing Chrysler if it is put up for sale. The Renault-Nissan auto alliance and Hyundai Motor Co. said earlier they were not interested in acquiring Chrysler.

DaimlerChrysler's U.S. shares rose 45 cents to $70.43 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Chrysler last week announced it lost $1.475 billion in 2006 and said it expects losses to continue through 2007. DaimlerChrysler earned $4.26 billion in 2006.

The news was accompanied by plans to shed 13,000 jobs, including 11,000 production workers and 2,000 salaried employees as it trims expenses and factory capacity to match declining sales. The automaker also announced the closure of one plant and layoffs at several others.

In announcing the cuts, DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche said the German-American automaker would "not exclude any option in order to find the best solution for both the Chrysler Group and DaimlerChrysler." But the automaker had remained mum on any possible sale.