SEOUL (Reuters) – Shares of Kia Corp in South Korea rose to a two-decade high on Wednesday after a local media report said the carmaker would sign a 4 trillion won deal ($ 3.59 million) with Apple Inc.
Shares of Kia, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co., jumped to 14.5% to its all-time high since 1997, with 102,000 gains on Wednesday.
The rally came after South Korea’s online news center DongA.com reported that Apple would invest $ 3.6 billion in Kia while collaborating to produce Apple electric vehicles at Kia’s plant in Georgia, without cite no source. The report said the deal would be signed on February 17th.
Apple will try to produce 100,000 vehicles a year in 2024 at Kia’s plant, according to the report, with the goal of expanding that annual capacity to 400,000 at a later stage.
Apple and Hyundai declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Shares of Kia rose nearly 20 percent on Jan. 20 after a media report said its father, Hyundai Motor Group, had decided that Kia would be in charge of the proposed cooperation with Apple on electric cars.
Kia, at the time, said it was reviewing cooperation in autonomous electric cars with several foreign companies, not to mention the report linking it to a project with Apple.
Reuters reported last week that Hyundai Motor Group has “provisionally decided” that it would want Kia to partner with Apple, citing a Hyundai member.
Shares of Hyundai Motor rose 1.7%, while subsidiaries Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd and Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd rose 3.3% and 6.7% respectively from 0319 GMT, surpassing earnings of 0.1% of KOSPI of the South Korean stock market.
Heekyong Yang Reports; Edition by Ana Nicolaci da Costa