Renault Itching for a Return to the U.S.

French car maker Renault SA is still itching for a move into the U.S. automobile market -- the world's biggest, from which it has been absent for more than 20 years -- and might be interested in Chrysler LLC if its owners were to put it up for sale, a senior Renault official said Thursday.

Jacques Verdonck, Renault's vice-president for corporate and strategic planning, told Dow Jones Newswires that one option for the company is to try to establish a presence in the U.S. by itself, although this would be both "risky and costly."

That is because it would involve developing at least three new products specifically designed for the U.S. market, while creating a dealer network, either by forming an alliance with an existing dealership network or creating Renault's own network from scratch.

The other easier and less onerous way would be to link up with one of the large U.S. automotive companies, though this would imply that the partner is in good financial health and is sufficiently robust to carry the deal through, he said.

In 2007, talks between Renault and General Motors Corp. about a possible alliance collapsed after management of the two companies failed to see eye-to-eye on the potential synergies that could be derived from an alliance.

"We had discussions in past with GM that didn't work out even though there were considerable potential synergies," Mr. Verdonck said. "If the opportunity presents itself again, we will seize it. But if it doesn't, I don't believe we can launch an aggressive takeover operation against an American company."

In 1982, Renault took over American Motors Corp. to make the Alliance, a variant of Renault's subcompact Renault 9 car, but the project never made money and Renault backed out and sold off its interest to Chrysler Corp. five years later.

While a straight takeover is only one of several scenarios, he acknowledged that Chrysler "would make a good partner" in the U.S.

Potential synergies are different when you consider Chrysler, GM or Ford Motor Co., he said. Chrysler is more focused on its U.S. operations, while GM and Ford are more global players, he noted.

"What's important in a partnership is to ensure that management really wants to be in the partnership; if you do it against the will of the partner, you'll face huge difficulties," Mr. Verdonck said.

Renault Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said earlier this year that now is not the time for Renault to make a bold move into a new market such as the U.S., arguing that the company must first ensure the success of its industrial expansion in Morocco, in Latin America, India and Russia.