York: Ford best placed among Big Three

DETROIT (Reuters) - Jerry York, an adviser to Tracinda Corp, which has a $1 billion investment in Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said he believed the automaker was better positioned in a tough market than its U.S. rivals. York, speaking at the Reuters Autos Summit on Monday, said that Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally has brought a "maniacal" focus to the automaker's restructuring. "Ford right now is looking fairly clean," York said. "That's not to say it's a walk in the park. It's a tough, ugly industry right now and all three have a lot of work to do." Tracinda, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's investment vehicle, began investing actively in Ford shares in April and holds a 6.5 percent stake in the automaker. York declined to comment on any future investment in Ford by Tracinda.
York said that Chrysler LLC CBS.UL, the No. 3 U.S.-based automaker now controlled by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is in the "toughest situation" and it was possible that only two of three U.S. automakers would survive the deep U.S. auto industry downturn. "They don't have the diversification in the markets that GM and Ford have," he said. "It's possible we could end up with two."