Mazda may follow Suzuki, Mitsubishi with alliance

Mazda Motor Corp. may be the next Japanese carmaker to strike an alliance following plans by Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to team up with overseas manufacturers, investors and analysts say.

The companies are seeking to share costs for developing new models with the latest technology. Mazda may need to do the same as its 40-year-old ties to Ford Motor Co. weaken.

"Carmakers like Mazda with annual sales of about only a million units need to be exploring partnerships to survive," said Yoshiaki Kawano, an analyst in Tokyo at auto consulting company CSM Worldwide.

As the demand for hybrid, electric and other next- generation cars increases, carmakers find it too expensive to develop the technology alone, Kawano said. That partly explains why Hamamatsu-based Suzuki last week agreed to sell a 19.9 percent stake to Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen. France's PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi Motors are discussing deepening a partnership that would include an equity investment.

"The next candidate will probably be Mazda, following Mitsubishi and Suzuki," said Yoshihiro Okumura, who helps oversee the equivalent of $365 million at Chiba-gin Asset Management Co.

"At this point in time, no decision on any alliance has been made," said Mazda spokesman Ken Haruki.

Mazda shares rose 4.4 percent, the most in two weeks, to 212 yen as of 10:28 a.m. in Tokyo. It was the biggest gain among 62 stocks in the Topix Transportation Equipment Index.

'Focused on Ford'

Hiroshima-based Mazda, which expects to post a full-year loss of 26 billion yen ($290 million), raised more than $1 billion for product development from a share sale announced in October. Shares dropped 28 percent during the past six months, making its market capitalization almost half that of Mitsubishi Motors and less than a third of Suzuki.