Looks like EVERYONE is out of the running.
FOCUS-Auction for Kia Motors in peril
August 31, 1998 04:45 AM
By Kim Myong-hwan
SEOUL, Aug 31 (Reuters) - An international auction for ailing Kia Motors and its sister-company Asia Motors was likely to be cancelled after bidders demanded better terms on the firms' mountains of debt, officials and analysts said on Monday.
"The four bidders all want a write-off of debts," a senior Kia official told Reuters. He said the creditors had proposed a plan to reschedule some of the debt, but had ruled out any debt write-offs in the original tender documents. The official said the bidders' insistence on write-offs made their bids invalid.
"The auction should be aborted as all candidates have been disqualified," the Kia official, who did not want to be named, told Reuters. The winning bid was scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.
Ford Motor Co F and three South Korean automakers -- Hyundai Motor , Daewoo Motor and Samsung Motors -- all submitted bids for the two troubled car-makers earlier this month.
"The cancellation of the auction had been anticipated," said Ji Sung-chul, analyst at LG Economic Research Institute. "No one will be interested in, or capable of, taking the whole debts of Kia and Asia Motors."
The Kia official said an announcement about the auction would be made at 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Tuesday.
He said the Kia Group chairman, court-appointed administrator Yoo Jong-yul, met Korea Development Bank (KDB) governor Lee Keun-Young on Monday afternoon to discuss what to do about Kia and Asia Motors.
The results of the meeting were not released.
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($1 = 1,315.60 won) REUTERS
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