Pal Chief Says Four Firms Eyeing Peugeots Stake

Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL) chairman Vinod Doshi said yesterday talks were on with four firms to buy Peugeots stake in its erstwhile joint venture, PAL-Peugeot Ltd.

The French car maker pulled out of the joint venture in November 1997, and put its 32 per cent stake up for sale. PAL turned down an offer to buy the stake, saying it did not have the required funds.

We are waiting for somebody to buy the stake. We are talking to three or four firms, but the only one that I can mention is Skoda, Doshi said on the sidelines of a meeting of leading industrialists with the media. Czech car maker Skoda Automobilova is a unit of Germanys Volkswagen AG.

Doshi said he hoped this would work out as soon as possible. Technically, the plant has been approved by all four, they liked it. Now they want to go through the economic side, the losses and all, he said.

He said Peugeot had given an assurance to continue to supply parts, but the production of Peugeots 309 model was down to a trickle.

If Peugeot is not there, there is no point making cars. But we will make enough cars to use up the inventory we have...By then we hope somebody else takes over, and we will make their car, Doshi said.

PAL-Peugeot, which has a capacity to make 60,000 cars a year, made only about 2,000 309s in 1997.