Visteon shares jump as South Korea's Mando may buy former affiliate
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DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- Visteon Corp. shares rose to the highest level in more than three months after Mando Corp. said it may bid for Visteon's 70 percent stake in Halla Climate Control Corp., Mando's former affiliate.
Visteon shares rose $3.71, or 9 percent, to close at $46.16 in New York trading, after earlier reaching $46.46, the highest price since May 7.
The shares had fallen 15 percent this year through Wednesday amid Visteon's faltering efforts to shed lower-margin units and focus on faster-growing operations focused on Asia.
Visteon, the U.S. auto-parts maker spun off from Ford Motor Co. in 2000, has surged 31 percent this month on speculation it may attract a bid for Halla Climate shares or an outright takeover offer. Mando hired an adviser, though no decision has been made on an offer, South Korea's second-largest maker of auto parts said in a regulatory filing today.
Jim Fisher, a spokesman for Visteon in suburban Detroit, declined to comment.
Visteon in July failed in an attempt to buy the remaining 30 percent of Halla Climate, which makes automotive air conditioners. South Korea's National Pension Service, which owns 8.1 percent of Halla, rejected the U.S. company's offer and reached a preliminary agreement to give Mando the preferred bidder status for the fund's stake.
CEO resignation
Visteon in July also ended an agreement to sell the majority of its interiors business to its joint venture with Huayu Automotive Systems Co.
Visteon's CEO Don Stebbins resigned on Aug. 10 and the company's board installed longtime supplier executive Tim Leuliette as interim chairman, president and CEO.
Ryan Brinkman, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, raised his price target on Visteon to $50 from $35. He valued Visteon on a sum-of-its-parts basis at $56 a share.
"Visteon's new management is incrementally motivated to better realize the value of the sum of the firm's various parts over a shorter duration," Brinkman wrote in a research note.
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