Takata Gets 5 Bids from Potential Buyers

Airbag supplier Takata Corp. has received five offers from suitors, The Nikkei reports. The company aims to select a buyer by year-end.

The contenders are buyout firm KKR, parts supplier Flex-N-Gate, and rival airbag makers Autoliv, Daicel (in partnership with Bain Capital) and Key Safety Systems.

Sources tell Bloomberg News that Takata plans to discuss the bids with its carmaker customers on Sept. 27-29. The company is expected to narrow the list in October to two or three finalists.

Takata needs a financial savior help to cope with its share of as much as 1 trillion yen ($9.8 billion) in liabilities related to 100 million potentially fatal Takata airbag inflators, The Nikkei says. The devices, which have been blamed for as many as 15 fatalities, can misfire after prolonged exposure to heat and humidity.

More than a dozen carmakers have been replacing Takata inflators for nearly a decade in a series of recently expanded campaigns that include 70 million devices in the U.S. alone.