‘Ford likely to sell Volvo, Mercury’

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Detroit, May 2:: Jerry York, an adviser to billionaire investor and Ford Motor Co stakeholder Kirk Kerkorian, expects the No. 2 US automaker to sell its Volvo and Mercury brands, according to an interview published online by the Automotive News on Thursday.

York told the trade publication he expected that Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally would hold on to the luxury Lincoln brand, but sell Volvo and Mercury.

"I think ... he'll put Volvo on the market within the next year and a half," York was quoted as saying. "There's no rational reason for keeping Volvo and Mercury."

York said Mulally did not tell him any of Ford's plans when he met the chief executive in April, shortly after Kerkorian began building a stake in Ford.

The comments from York were the first from the veteran auto executive since Kerkorian's investment vehicle Tracinda Corp took its recently disclosed stake in Ford.

Tracinda said on Monday it had acquired a stake in Ford of about 4.7 percent and planned a cash offer to acquire a stake of an additional 1 percent.

That prompted analysts to speculate whether Kerkorian would push for additional asset sales by Ford, which has agreed to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors Ltd.

York, who had served as Kerkorian's representative on General Motors Corp's board in 2005 and 2006, had earlier lobbied unsuccessfully for GM to offload its Saab and Hummer brands.

In the Automotive News interview, York said he would be inclined to sell Mercury, but added that it would be important to see a fuller analysis of the potential savings and cost of taking such an action.

"I'd want to understand the likely cost savings versus the value loss, and that's always a difficult analysis. You have to see how many Ford customers would stick with Ford if you closed Mercury," he said.