Hyundai to increase partner search

Hyundai to increase partner search

SEOUL, MARCH 14: The strategic alliance announced this week between Italy's Fiat and General Motors may add impetus to Hyundai Motor's search for a partnership with a leading carmaker. South Korea's largest carmaker has been seeking a strategicalliance for years. But analysts said the company's reluctance to give up some management rights has put off possible partners.

Hyundai's sheer dominance of the domestic market has nurtured the idea that the company and its sister firm Kia Motors could survive and grow without a foreign alliance.

The two captured 75 per cent of the Korean vehicle market in 1999, with Daewoo Motor accounting for most of the rest, analysts said.

"Daewoo Motor will fall into the hands of a foreign firm soon and Samsung Motors will likely be sold to Renault," said Richard Pyo, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. "Then, the home market will not be a shelter for Hyundai any longer."