Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Saturday it is considering setting up a joint venture with Merrill Lynch & Co. to engage in North American financing operations as part of the struggling automaker’s rehabilitation efforts.
The joint venture, aimed at offering sales financing and servicing as well as raising funds, would provide competitive sales financing products to customers and dealers as part of an ongoing review of its U.S. finance business, the automaker said.
In a related move, Mitsubishi Motors said it will sell some assets of its U.S. auto loan subsidiary to Merrill Lynch in an effort to improve the automaker’s financial standing by reducing assets and interest-bearing debts.
Specifically, about $2 billion of Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America Inc.’s $4 billion in assets, such as lease and loan receivables, will be sold to Merrill Lynch sequentially starting this week after the completion of procedures with related financial institutions, it said.
For this complete story, please visit Merrill Lynch, Mitsubishi in Joint Auto Loan Venture and Bad Loan Sale.
