FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Auto maker Daimler <DAIGn.DE> is in advanced talks to buy a stake in Heycar, a used-car portal set up last year by its bigger German rival Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE>, the Handelsblatt business daily reported on Wednesday.
The Stuttgart-based luxury carmaker is seeking a 20 percent stake in talks that could culminate in a deal announcement next week, Handelsblatt reported, citing unnamed sources.
Heycar was founded last October and has around 300,000 cars on offer, Handelsblatt said. It competes with German market leader mobile.de and rival Autoscout.24, which is run by Scout24 <G24n.DE>.
Autoscout, which is present in several European markets, had around 3 million active listings at the middle of the year, of which 1.2 million were in Germany.
Daimler was not immediately available for comment.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; editing by David Evans)
