Pininfarina's sale to Mahindra seen in next few weeks - sources

By Paola Arosio and Sumeet Chatterjee

MILAN/MUMBAI (Reuters) - The sale of indebted Italian car designer Pininfarina to Indian automaker Mahindra and Mahindra could be wrapped up in the next couple of weeks, three sources close to the situation said on Tuesday.

Shares in Pininfarina, which has designed cars for Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce and Cadillac, jumped more than 20 percent before being suspended from trading, while Mahindra was up 3.5 percent by 0955 GMT.

Two of the sources said a meeting with Pininfarina's creditor banks was likely to take place soon, possibly next week. The banks would be offered the option of rescheduling debt repayments to 2025 or of an immediate reimbursement, but for only half the debt owed, one of the sources said.

"The ball is in the court of the Pininfarina banks now," one of the sources said.

Another source said the Pininfarina family would keep a small stake in the group and be involved in management of the company after the sale.

An unsourced report in financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore said that within days the two firms, which have been in talks for months, could seal an "investment agreement" that would see Mahindra take control of the troubled Italian company.

Spokesmen at Pininfarina and Mahindra declined to comment. Pininfarina's controlling shareholder Pincar, which has a 76 percent stake in the group, said in a statement talks with the Indian group on the sale of its holding were underway and any developments would be communicated to the market in due course.

Turin-based Pininfarina's market capitalisation at Monday's close was 123.6 million euros ($138 million).

The company has been loss-making for years and its net debt stood at 52.7 million euros at end-June. It has been struggling to stay in business as carmakers have moved to hire more in-house stylists at the expense of independent design firms.

($1 = 0.8962 euros)

(Additional reporting by Stefano Rebaudo; Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Silvia Aloisi and Mark Potter)