Takata Discusses Turnaround Options with Carmakers

Takata Corp. kicked off a series of meetings with its carmaker customers on Tuesday to brief them on proposals from would-be financial backers to bail out the struggling airbag supplier. The conferences are expected to continue through Thursday.

More than a dozen vehicle manufacturers are recalling about 100 million potentially fatal Takata airbag inflators at a combined cost surpassing 1 trillion yen ($10 billion). Takata’s share of the expense has not been determined.

Takata has received five bids from suitors. It hopes to narrow the field to 2-3 next month and choose a partner by year-end. The contenders are Autoliv, Daicel-Bain Capital, Flex-N-Gate, Key Safety Systems and KKR.

The Nikkei says at least one bid is predicated on a court-directed restructuring, which would establish Takata’s share of the liability. The supplier’s customers would need to approve any bailout plan.