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India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. has made its phase-out from South Korea official, confirming it has been approaching potential buyers to sell at least 25 percent stake in SsangYong Motor and leave its ownership to below 50 percent.

If Mahindra or SsangYong find a new investor, the parent company will be able to lower its stake to “below 50 percent”, said Pawan Goenka, managing director of Mahindra Group and board chairman of SsangYong Motor, in a conference call on Friday (local time, India) following its second-quarter statement release.

SsangYong Motor shares on Tuesday rose 2.08 percent to close at 3,925 won in Seoul.

The Indian carmaking group owns 75 percent of the SUV-focused Korean producer after it bought controlling stake from Shanghai Automotive Industry in 2004.

Pawan Goenka

Goenka said the board has already approved the plan to cash out from the Korean automaker. Several Chinese producers are said to be interested, although none so far have made their intent clear.

Mahindra maintained it won’t provide new funding to SsangYong Motor after it gave out just 40 billion won from earlier pledge of 230 billion won.

The board also made it clear that there will be no more capital injection whether a potential investment partner emerges or not, added Anish Shah, chief financial officer of Mahindra Group.

SsangYong Motor has taken out nearly 200 billion won ($168.7 million) loans from foreign lenders including JPMorgan Chase, BMP Paribas and Bank of America on the condition that Mahindra maintains over 51 percent stake in SsangYong Motor. The carmaker would have to pay back debt if Mahindra’s holdings go down under 50 percent.


SsangYong Motor recently sold off its maintenance and repair service center in Guro, Seoul for 180 billion won but stayed mired in the red for the 14th consecutive quarter in April-June. Operating loss widened to 117.1 billion won in the second quarter due to weak exports and production setback amid coronavirus despite efforts to save on fixed costs.

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