Carmakers Gather to Ponder Takata’s Fate

Major carmakers will be meeting in New York City today and Wednesday to ponder Takata Corp.’s plan to find an outside investor that can shepherd the company through its airbag inflator crisis.

Takata inflators have been linked to at least 17 fatalities. More than a dozen carmakers are recalling about 100 million of the explosion-prone devices worldwide. So far those manufacturers have not demanded that Takata pay for at least some of the estimated $19 billion cost of the recalls.

Takata’s customers are eager to avoid the company’s collapse because global capacity to make airbags isn’t enough to absorb Takata’s share, the Financial Times points out. But sources tell the newspaper carmakers have differing views about how best to save the company.

Takata is considering five bids from would-be financial saviors. All five proposals suggest the company go through bankruptcy, a step Takata has been reluctant to take. The company hopes to select a final list of two or three final bidders by mid-November.

FT's sources say carmakers and Takata’s lenders favor proposals from two existing airbag companies: Japan’s Daicel, which has partners with Bain Capital, and Sweden’s Autoliv.