"We are considering selling off our shareholding in Eicher Motors as Mitsubishi ceased to be the technology supplier to Eicher Motors a few years back," MMC's New Delhi liaison office general manager Kazuhiko Take said.

Eicher Motors had entered into a technical assistance agreement with MMC in 1986 to manufacture the Canter range of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) at its Pithampur plant.

The agreement came to an end in March 1994 after the transfer of technology over seven years ago. But MMC still supplies certain spares for the LCVs, Take said.

When asked whether MMC had identified any prospective buyer for its share, Take said the company would first approach Eicher Motors itself to buy out the stake.

However, with the conditions in the stock markets turning from bad to worse, this was not the right timeto sell the stake and MMC would wait till things started looking up, he added.

"This is not the right time to sell our shareholding. We will wait till the market conditions improve," he said.

When contacted, an Eicher group official said they were unaware of any such move by MMC and would consider acquiring the stake if the Japanese partner approached them with the buyout proposal.

"As of now we do not know anything about Mitsubishi's plans for the selloff. Let them approach us first, then we will consider the option," he said.

At the current market price, MMC's 7.5 per cent stake (about 15 lakh shares) would be worth Rs 1.5 crore. Eicher Motors was quoted at around Rs 10 on the National Stock Exchange on Friday.

Apart from the equity participation in Eicher Motors, MMC currently has a technology supply agreement with two companies in the country -- Hindustan Motors for its Lancer car project and Mahindra and Mahindra for the Voyager project.

Under the agreement with Hindustan Motors, Mitsubishiis free to pick up 10 per cent equity in the company. HM has already made it clear that they are ready to offload the 10 per cent in favour of MMC at any point of time.

On this proposal, Take said Mitsubishi had no immediate plans to acquire the stake as the Japanese auto major was currently going through a lean period back home.