Posted on Thursday 16 August 2007
A group of Spanish investors are hoping to purchase the Seat brand from Volkswagen Group, and are said to be currently in talks with VW officials. A consortium consisting of the Bergé group (the local importer for Lexus, Hyundai, Subaru, Bentley and Chrysler) and Spain’s wealthy Carulla family are preparing a bid for the carmaker, reports the Hispanidad.
VW would be happy to offload the brand. VW exec Ferdinand Piëch has been vocal about his lack of interest in Seat, instead focusing on the Skoda brand because of the lower production costs in the Czech Republic compared with Spain. Seat’s under-utilized Martorell plant is not considered an important element in VW Group’s current strategies, and lacks the funding necessary to bring it up to full production.
There have already been several proposals to sell Seat to a Korean manufacturer or Italy’s Fiat. With Fiat, there was even a plan to integrate Seat with the Alfa Romeo label but the project never passed the initial discussion stage. Executives from the new consortium have recently met with Piëch to discuss the deal but the VW exec won’t be releasing any details until at least the end of the year.
Via Autoblog.nl