VW will sell its stake in Suzuki Motor Corporation following a decision from an international arbitration court that ended a four-year dispute over a failed partnership between the carmakers.
The German automaker will sell its 19.9 percent stake in Suzuki after the arbitrators accepted the Japanese automaker’s request to end the cooperation. The stake owned by VW, which bought it from Suzuki in 2010 for 222.5 billion yen, is currently valued at about 463 billion yen (approximately $3.8 billion).
As the dispute comes to an end, Suzuki will have the opportunity to find a new partner. The cooperation with VW failed to result in a single joint project. “It’s like taking out a tiny bone stuck in my throat. I feel refreshed,” Chairman Osamu Suzuki was quoted as saying by Bloomberg at a press conference Sunday in Tokyo.
When the partnership deal was announced in 2009, the stated goal was to cooperate on small, fuel-efficient cars for emerging economies. The idea was to provide Suzuki with access to technology while giving VW a more significant role in the Indian market through Suzuki’s business there.
However, relations between VW and Suzuki deteriorated in 2011 after the Japanese automaker agreed to buy diesel engines from Fiat. From that moment on the companies began accusing each other of breaching the accord.
The carmakers don’t agree on what should happen to the VW-owned Suzuki shares. While Suzuki said that VW has to sell the stake back to them or a party of the Japanese company’s choosing, VW said it hasn’t decided yet which company will be the buyer of the stake.
Suzuki may have to pay damages after arbitrators ruled the Japanese company breached the agreement. The Japanese automaker plans to remain independent for the foreseeable future and has ruled out working with VW again.
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