Hyundai Motor says Libya 26,000 auto deal its largest

SEOUL, Sept 4 Reuters reported that South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor Co announced its largest export deal on Wednesday, involving the export of 26,373 compact cars to Libya.

The deal would be worth about $240 million, analyst Suh Sung-moon at ING Barings estimated, although Hyundai declined to specify the value of the sale.

"We plan to ship Verna (exported as Accent) from September 4 to the end of this year," Hyundai said in a statement.

A Hyundai official said his firm exported 6,900 of the same vehicles to Libya earlier this year. He expected exports to Libya to grow as the previously isolated Arab country opens up its market further.

Hyundai shares fell despite the news, dropping 3.9 percent to 33,450 won in line with a broad sell-off in which the main market fell 2.37 percent.

Hyundai said on Monday its exports in August jumped 23.7 percent year on year to 87,281 vehicles, putting it on track for a 2002 export target of one million.

South Korea and Libya cemented commercial ties in the 1980s, when a South Korean construction firm took the lead in constructing the Great Man-made River Project, one of the world's largest, to pump water from beneath the Sahara Desert to cities along Libya's northern coast.