Chrysler rules out sale of individual brands

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said on Wednesday that the No. 3 U.S. automaker would not sell an individual brand like Jeep, but would pursue deals to sell off tooling for models going out of production, or even licensing production of current models.

LaSorda, who was speaking to reporters on a conference call, was responding to a Reuters report from Tuesday that cited people with knowledge of the discussions as saying that Chrysler had been in talks to sell assets to Renault-Nissan and auto parts supplier Magna International.

"This company is going to be around," LaSorda said. "We are not going under."

LaSorda said he could not address the question of whether Chrysler's owner, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, was shopping the company to potential buyers in its entirety.

"Those things are all dealt with at the Cerberus level, and at this point in time I just can't speak to that," he said.

He said consideration of any sale of the automaker would be the responsibility of Cerberus, and would have to be approved by U.S. officials under the terms of Chrysler's $4 billion U.S. government bailout.

LaSorda said Chrysler had not had any discussions with Renault SA, which owns a 44 percent interest in Nissan Motor Co Ltd.

But Chrysler had been in discussions last year with Magna and Russian carmaker GAZ about making vehicles in Russia based on the platform behind the Dodge Caliber and Jeep Patriot, LaSorda said.