Foreign Suitors Interested in Visteon Stake
May 21, 2007

India's Tata AutoComp Systems and France's Valeo are in discussions to buy a stake in Visteon Corp., the Business Standard in India reported today, citing unnamed sources in the article picked up by Reuters news service.

It was not clear whether the two firms would jointly or independently bid on the ailing parts-making unit that was spun off from Ford.

The newspaper said a deal could be valued between $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Tata Is One To Watch

Tata AutoComp is part of India's growing Tata group. Tata, already India's largest truck maker, began building cars only seven years ago. Since then, it has been growing its product lines and production capacity in its home market of India as well as expanding in Eastern Europe and now Western Europe.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Tata was expected to post its most profitable quarter in history and its third straight year of record profits when it announces earnings May 19. Those profits came largely on the strength of India's upsurge in consumer spending and Tat's introduction of a cheaper version of its Indica compact car has been winning customers from market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd.

In January, Tata Motors signed on Fiat SpA for new technology and designs for its cars.

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