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Mitsubishi wants job security from DamlerChrysler

TOKYO: Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp is ready to sell a 34 percent stake of itself to DaimlerChrysler AG but brand name protection and job security for its workers are needed to help clinch the deal, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Financially strapped Mitsubishi Motors wants assurances that 80,000 jobs at its group companies will be protected and a guarantee that it can continue to use its brand name in return for DaimlerChrysler taking a major stake in the company, national dailies Nihon Keizai Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun reported, citing sources close to the subject.

The papers said that Mitsubishi Motors President Katsuhiko Kawasoe mentioned these points in a telephone conversation with DaimlerChrysler CEO Jurgen Schrempp earlier this week.

The stake would give the German-US automaker effective management control over the medium-sized Japanese car company.

Mitsubishi officials could not be reached immediately for comment at the weekend.

On Friday, DaimlerChrysler declined to comment on a report that Mitsubishi Motors might offer the US-German group a chance to buy a third of its shares.

"We are, as usual, not commenting on this," a spokeswoman for the world's fifth largest automaker said after Kyodo News agency reported that Mitsubishi was prepared to let the Stuttgart-based company acquire a 33.4 percent stake.

A deal with Mitsubishi would bolster DaimlerChrysler's drive to generate around 25 percent of group sales in Asia in the medium-term, according to analysts.

But DaimlerChrysler has remained mum in the face of a barrage of alliance rumours linking it to a string of different companies in both Asia and Europe.

Mitsubishi is probably the last of the medium-sized Japanese car makers available for deals after the world's biggest automaker General Motors Corp forged alliances with Fuji Heavy Industries and Suzuki, analysts said.

In addition, Ford Motor Co, which is also rumoured to be interested in Mitsubishi, has an alliance with Mazda Motor Corp while French car maker Renault owns 36.8 percent of Nissan Motor Co.-Reuters