Kerkorian to raise his stake in Ford

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s investment company said its tender offer for 20 million additional shares of Ford Motor Co. attracted a huge response and would easily enable it to increase its stake in the automaker to about 5.5%.

Tracinda Corp. said its tender offer of $8.50 a share drew offers of more than 1 billion of the company’s shares. It will buy 20 million shares for about $170 million.

Nearly half of Ford’s 2.17 billion outstanding shares were tendered.

“The response from investors is understandable given that the offer represented a significant premium over Ford’s current share price,” said Mark Truby, a Ford spokesman.