Online site says Kia may be gone in 2011 Options

[elantragt]

Actually Tom I think Hyundai has a 51% share and controlling interest in Kia.

[Tom06]

Noted Mitch. Wikipedia says they now own less than 40% but it could be wrong.

[streetfighterguy]

Kia Motors said net profit quadrupled in the first quarter on stronger sales and equity gains from affiliated companies.

Kia, South Korea's second-largest automaker, earned 398.6 billion won ($358 million) in the three months ended March 31, it said in a regulatory filing Friday. The company reported net profit of 97.4 billion won the same period last year.

The maker of the Forte small sedan and Sorento compact crossover SUV said sales during the quarter rose 39 percent to 4.86 trillion won from 3.5 trillion won a year earlier.

Kia, which exports 65 percent of its domestic production, is an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co. Together they form the world's fifth-largest automotive group.

Global sales volume soared 69 percent to 474,625 vehicles, compared with 281,000 last year.

"First-quarter results improved thanks to an increase in sales volume and the effect from new models," Kia finance chief Lee Jae-rok said in a press release.

China sales soared 152 percent, the company said

Shares in Kia Motors, which released results during morning trading, closed unchanged at 26,400 won. The stock price tripled in value in 2009.

On Thursday, Hyundai Motor said net profit hit a record high in the first quarter amid a jump in sales and strong performance in China and India. South Korea's biggest automaker earned 1.13 trillion won, a fivefold increase from the same period last year.

This doesn't sound like a company ready to close up shop in any way!

[blmqzjc]

IIRC, Kia just opened up a huge state of the art plant in Georgia in the last couple of years. Think they build the Sorrento there, and probably other models. Not the type of thing you do if you are "ending".

[LDub]

I'm not sure what the author of this article was thinking by including Kia on the list. He makes a valid argument for all the other companies, but nobody is going to shut down a brand that's growing like Kia...growth and strong future prospects are what the other companies on the list DON'T have.

[Rob]

IIRC, Kia just opened up a huge state of the art plant in Georgia in the last couple of years. Think they build the Sorrento there, and probably other models. Not the type of thing you do if you are "ending".

Yep, in West Point (pop. 3382).
Here is Wikipedia's map of the city's location (The little red dot in the inset is West Point:


And this is a minute-long flyover of the plant:


It was built at a cost of...
one BILLION dollars!


Sounds like a going concern, if you ask me...