Mitsubishi: It’s Not Leaving U.S.

Ailing Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which has held failed discussions about the sale of its Southern California-based North American operations with at least one potential investor, on Thursday denied a published report that it still was attempting to bail out of the United States.

An insider familiar with the talks told The Times that Mitsubishi executives had discussed the potential sale of the automaker’s sales unit in Cypress and its auto assembly plant in Normal, Ill., with New York investment firm Ripplewood Holdings about a month ago. But Ripplewood had little interest, the source said.

In response to an Asian Wall Street Journal report that the company wants to sell both operations, Mitsubishi Motors North America spokeswoman Dotty Diemer said Thursday that the parent company had “no plan to sell our U.S. plant nor U.S. sales operations.”

A Ripplewood spokesman declined to comment on Thursday’s report.

Mitsubishi is Japan’s only unprofitable automaker and is receiving almost $10 billion in loans, new investment and debt waivers to help keep it afloat.

Even as Mitsubishi is attempting to restore its Japanese operations to health, its crucial U.S. sales -- which once accounted for much of its global profit -- have plummeted by more than 50% in the last two years.