The Nikkei report says Itochu Corp and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc companies are said to buy three percent each at a price of $US119.7 million (10 billion yen). These two companies are among nearly 10 firms that will buy shares in Mazda this week, as Japanese media reports.
The American company has over 195 million Mazda shares, which by last Friday’s valuation equate to roughly $515 million. The sale will leave Ford with a stake of 3 to 4 percent.
Mazda's main lender Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. already holds a 2.9 percent stake in the carmaker, so after the sale it will probably become its largest stakeholder. The rest of the shares will be sold to some of Mazda's components and parts suppliers.
Last month, Mazda President and Chief Executive Takashi Yamanouchi expressed hopes that the partnership with Ford will continue.
The two companies have been working together to develop models, share auto parts and help each other in overseas markets. The current Ford Fiesta is based on the Mazda2 platform whilst Ford sells the Mazda6 based Fusion in overseas markets. More recently the Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 were co-developed by the two companies in Australia.
Ford Motor Co. became Mazda's biggest shareholder in 1979 when the Japanese automaker was near collapse. Ford increased its stake in 1996, to 33.4 per cent, but reduced that to 13 per cent in 2008. That has since decreased to about 11 percent.
Company officials at Itochu, Mazda and Sumitomo all declined to comment on the reports.
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