SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Kia Corp shares hit a two-decade high on Wednesday after a local media report said the carmaker would sign a 4 trillion-worth ($ 3.59 billion) deal with Apple Inc. to build electric vehicles.
Shares of Kia, affiliated with Hyundai Motor Co., rose 14.5% to its highest value since 1997, at 102,000 earnings on Wednesday.
The rally came after South Korea’s online news media outlet DongA.com reported that Apple would invest $ 3.6 billion in Kia while collaborating to produce Apple electric vehicles at Georgia’s Kia plant. without citing sources. The report said the agreement would be signed on February 17.
Apple will target the production of 100,000 vehicles annually by 2024 at the Kia plant, the report said, aiming to expand its 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 parent, Hyundai Motor Group, had decided that Kia would be responsible for the proposed cooperation with Apple on electric cars.
At the time, Kia said it was reviewing co-operation with electric cars with several foreign companies, without mentioning the report linking it to a project with Apple.
Reuters reported last week that Hyundai Motor Group had “provisionally decided” that it would like Kia to partner with Apple, citing a Hyundai insider.
Shares of Hyundai Motor increased 1.7%, while subsidiaries Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd and Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd increased 3.3% and 6.7%, respectively, from 0319 GMT, exceeding the 0.1% increase in South Korea’s largest stock market, KOSPI.
Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Edited by Ana Nicolaci da Costa