By Ebru Tuncay and Can Sezer
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish car wheel manufacturer CMS Group is looking to sell a stake in itself, possibly a majority stake, and has mandated HSBC (L:HSBA) to advise on a potential transaction, two people familiar with the matter said.
Privately held CMS supplies wheels for 22 automobile brands including BMW (DE:BMWG), Ford (N:F), Toyota (T:7203) and Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p). CMS says it is Turkey's largest manufacturer of aluminium alloy wheels and Europe's third-largest.
"HSBC has been mandated. The buyer may be a fund," one of the sources told Reuters. Both of the sources declined to be identified because the information has not been made public.
CMS and HSBC both declined to comment.
"The company needs to have a foreign partner in order to grow, to be able to compete with big players," said an automotive sector source who is not related to the deal.
CMS revenues, mostly exports, amounted to 1.2 billion lira (£248.7 million) in 2016 and the company expects revenues to rise to 1.4 billion lira this year.
CMS produces 9 million aluminium alloy wheels per year at its current production facility in Izmir, western Turkey, and plans to increase production to 12 million by 2022.