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Renault ends Samsung bid
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March 29, 2000: 5:24 a.m. ET
Korean car bosses return home; Renault faced pressure of creditors
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LONDON (CNNfn) - French carmaker Renault said its buyout talks with the debt-strapped South Korean carmaker Samsung Motors Corp. have fallen apart, ending an effort lasting near three months to expand its presence in Asia.
Renault said it plans to still try to hammer out a deal for the Samsung unit, but said a delegation from the South Korean automaker and its key creditors had returned home without an agreement. But a Renault spokesman said the French company didn't expect to reopen talks after March 31, the date when its exclusive right to hold discussions with Samsung is scheduled to end.
The French company had offered to form a joint venture with Samsung that would value the Korean automaker at about $450 million. Renault would have  bought 70 percent of that venture, paying $50 million in cash in a first phase and the rest later. Samsung would have owned the remainder of the venture.
Among the major sticking points analysts had foreseen was pressure from Samsung Motors' creditors on Renault to raise its offer price. Auto analysts added that the political backdrop for a deal was favorable, however, because residents in the southern Korean city of Pusan were pushing to reopen an idle plant, and an acquisition by Renault could have brought a reopening closer.
Renault confirmed in January that it had begun talks with Samsung, which is in receivership.
The French automaker launched its foray into Asia last year through the purchase of Japan's Nissan. But Samsung Motors was seen as a key move into one of Asia's most impenetrable markets.
Asia is seen as a lynchpin of expansion in the auto industry. Auto analysts said sales in Asia are expected to grow faster than in the United States and Europe over the next decade.
On Monday, German automaker DaimlerChrysler (FDCX) announced it would pay $2.1 billion for about one-third of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the fourth-largest carmaker in Japan.
In early trading Wednesday, shares of Renault (PRNO), France's largest auto maker, rose 1 percent to 42.44 euros. Samsung Motors is a division of the Samsung chaebol, or alliance of companies. 
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