Chrysler Trading Hectic After Kerkorian Deal : Autos: Shares in the No. 3 car maker rose 62.5 cents. Meanwhile, the billionaire investor told the SEC his purchase was for investment purposes.

Traders did a vigorous business in Chrysler Corp. shares Monday as billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, keeping all his options open, pondered his new 9.8% stake in the auto maker.

Chrysler led the most-active list on the New York Stock Exchange, closing at $12.875 a share, up 62.5 cents from the close Friday, the day Kerkorian’s $272-million investment in the No. 3 auto maker was made public.

Kerkorian’s purchases were disclosed by Chrysler at the same time it announced that its board, in a special meeting, had tightened its anti-takeover measures to dilute the investor’s holdings if he bought 10% or more of the company’s shares.

In a required filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kerkorian reiterated that the purchase of 22 million Chrysler common shares by his Tracinda Corp. was “solely for the purpose of investment.”

Kerkorian also said he had no plans to buy more shares of Chrysler. But he said that could change, depending on his “evaluation of the company’s business and prospects.”

However, under provisions of the “poison pill” defense, even a small increase in Kerkorian’s holdings would enable Chrysler to drastically dilute his stake by issuing new shares to all other shareholders.

The SEC filing also said Kerkorian isn’t proposing any “extraordinary corporate transaction” such as a merger or liquidation, shake-up in management, or other major changes.

Kerkorian’s Los Angeles attorney, Terry Christensen, said Kerkorian is “taking a few days off” and has no immediate plans for his Chrysler shares. Contrary to earlier indications, he also doesn’t plan legal action against Chrysler’s poison pill defense, Christensen said.

“There isn’t any next step,” Christensen said.

However, he criticized what he termed Chrysler’s “significant over-reaction” in lowering the poison pill threshold to 10% from 20%. Christensen suggested the auto company should “straighten itself out” by revoking the anti-takeover amendments.

Meanwhile, Chrysler officials said in response to questions Monday that the company has discussed other transactions with Kerkorian, including his possible purchase last year of its Gulfstream aircraft subsidiary.

Looking to sell Gulfstream, Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca met with Kerkorian at the behest of Gulfstream Chairman Allen E. Paulson in the fall of 1989 to see if he was interested, a Chrysler spokesman said. Kerkorian, who controls MGM Grand Airlines, was approached because of his experience in the transportation business.

Those discussions went nowhere, the spokesman said--as did Kerkorian’s query at the same meeting about Chrysler’s interest in investing in MGM/UA Communications Corp., which he then owned. The entertainment business “was determined to be inappropriate for Chrysler as too far afield” from cars and trucks, the spokesman said.

Gulfstream was sold to Paulson and others earlier this year for $825 million.

In his 13-D filing with the SEC, Kerkorian detailed his purchase of Chrysler shares in 42 transactions starting Oct. 11, when the stock was priced at $10.50, and ending Dec. 12, when he bought his largest chunk of 6 million shares at $13.30 a share.

Along with shares in General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., Chrysler’s stock has been depressed for months. All three companies recorded modest gains Monday amid a general market decline as Kerkorian’s investment focused attention on auto stocks.

But automotive analyst Joseph S. Phillippi of Shearson Lehman Bros. said the muted market reaction to Kerkorian’s investment in Chrysler means that Wall Street doesn’t expect it to trigger a run-up in Chrysler’s stock price.

“The trading community is extremely skeptical,” said Phillippi.

Kerkorian said all the shares were bought with cash from the working capital of Tracinda, the investment company he owns. In November, Kerkorian walked away with $967 million from the sale of MGM/UA Communications to Pathe Communications.

Chrysler officials said the SEC filing “was essentially what we expected.”