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Ford heads to Korea
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January 4, 2000: 7:52 a.m. ET
German auto executive to join team in talks with bank on Daewoo auction
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A delegation from U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co will arrive in South Korea Wednesday for talks with Korea Development Bank about the planned auction of Daewoo Motor Co, a KDB official said Tuesday.
"We are informed a Ford delegation will visit us on Wednesday over our plan to sell off Daewoo Motor," said a senior KDB official overseeing the sale of the automaker.
"But we don't know what exactly Ford is planning," he added.
In a related development, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Ford had hired Ulrich Bez, a German auto designer, as a consultant to help evaluate Daewoo. Bez is joining the delegation, which will be led by Paul Drenkow, chief of Ford's Asia-Pacific operations.
The Journal said Bez was in Seoul for five years overhauling Daewoo Motor’s product lineup as the company expanded in Korea and entered new international markets.
The KDB official said two foreign companies -- Ford and General Motors (GM) -- have so far expressed interest in taking over or having an alliance with Daewoo Motor.
KDB said Friday that creditors of Daewoo Motor aimed to sign a final agreement to sell the company by the end of June.
Creditors agreed to a limited auction, calling for bidders to submit letters of intent by the end of January and bidding proposals by early March, the bank said.
A priority candidate is to be picked by mid-March for negotiations.
KDB said a limited auction was necessary to prevent a delay that could erode the value of Daewoo Motor's assets.
South Korean media reports have said DaimlerChrysler, Fiat and Korea's Hyundai and Samsung groups would also be invited to enter the auction.
Daewoo Motor, which has liabilities of 18.6 trillion against 12.9 trillion in assets, is a core unit of the Daewoo Group, now being dismantled by its creditors under a debt-restructuring program.
Shares of Ford (F) were down Monday 15/16 to 52-3/8.
---from staff and wire reports. 
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