Japanese carmaker Nissan will sell a minority stake in its Malaysian operations unless it can gain control of the business as part of its regional restructuring, a report said today.

Nissan Motor Co., which currently has a 5.56 percent stake in Tan Chong Motor Holdings, hopes to increase its equity interest to at least 40 percent for more control over production and distribution, the New Straits Times said.

"As a matter of company policy, Nissan will either sell off its minority stakes completely or raise them above the 40 percent level to take control," Nissan spokeswoman Mia Nielsen told the newspaper.

She did not give any time frame for the changes but said the move was part of Nissan's plans to further enhance its presence in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Officials from Tan Chong, which assembles and distributes Nissan vehicles in Malaysia, declined to comment on the report.

Nissan is the second best selling foreign automaker in Malaysia after Toyota, with 18,143 vehicles sold last year or 4.5 percent market share.

Potential base

Earlier this month the company, controlled by Renault SA of France, signed a deal to take a majority stake in two Thai joint ventures and said Thailand was a potential base for global production.

Nissan president Carlos Ghosn said at the time that minority shareholdings were no longer the best way to run a business. He has targeted Malaysia and the Philippines as next in line for restructuring.

"(The) two remaining countries with minority shareholding are not going to stay. It goes to zero or it goes to majority, that is our plan," Ghosn said.

Nissan plans to raise its global sales by one million units to 3.6 million units in the three years to March 2005.

Its sales topped the base figure by 180,000 units in the fiscal year to March 2003 and the company has forecast additional sales of some 450,000 units for the year to March 2004. - AFP