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Filed under: Etc. , Euro , Volkswagen , Earnings/Financials The NFL season is clearly out of control, Audi just crossed the country in a bunch of diesels you can't buy here, and GM wants to "merge" with Chrysler . But it's not just America that's home to the madness: Ferrari might leave F1 , Mitsuoka is selling this thing for €70,000, and today, for a brief moment, Volkswagen was the most valuable company in the entire world based on market capitalization. The reason: Porsche announced it would up its stake in the company to 75-percent. That blasted VW's €210 euro-per-share price up to €1,000 per share, making it more valuable than ExxonMobil and giving Ferdinand Piech reason to start practicing some lines from Scarface . The shares ended the day at €643, which is still pretty good for paper that could be had for less than €200 just about a month ago... Thanks for the tip, Kris! [Source: Seeking Alpha ] Volkswagen temporarily becomes largest...
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Filed under: Euro , Earnings/Financials Click above for hi-res gallery of the Pininfarina Sintesi Concept Even prior to Pininfarina CEO Andrea Pininfarina's untimely death while out riding his scooter, the market for coachbuilt automobiles was shrinking fast . To wit, the Italian car design firm had recently just managed to sign an agreement with its creditors to reschedule the company's debt and is now asking for an extra one-hundred-million Euros from shareholders for future product development. Pininfarina is also planning on designing and building its own electric car using batteries and technology supplied by a French company known as The Bolloré Group. Currently, many questions surround the storied Italian marque. As of today, for instance, Pininfarina is without a leader as the company has yet to announce its next CEO, despite the fact that it is knee-deep in a turnaround plan to bring the company back to profitability. Can the storied design firm and coach-building...
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Filed under: Euro , Chrysler, LLC. , Daimler , Earnings/Financials Normally the privately owned Chrysler LLC is under no obligation to reveal its financial performance to Wall Street, but yesterday the Cerberus-owned automaker was forced to show a few pages from its accounting books thanks to one of its largest stakeholders and former owner, Daimler AG. The German automaker revealed that in the last six months, its 19.9% stake in Chrysler has cost it $585 million. To clarify Daimler's numbers, Chrysler also revealed yesterday that the loss being attributed to it, all of which was incurred in Daimler's first fiscal quarter of the year, is around 65 million euro, or $103 million, using American accounting standards. Perhaps realizing that all analysts had to do was multiply Daimler's loss by five to arrive at Chrysler's total loss for the last quarter, the automaker just came right out and said it lost about $515 million. While a mere pittance to the $8.7 billion worth of...
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Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , Porsche , Volkswagen , Earnings/Financials Porsche is one step closer to its goal of purchasing Volkswagen. Back in April of last year, the German automaker passed the 30-percent mark, forcing it to make an outright offer for The Volkswagen Group in its entirety, which it did . Not too many VW shareholders sold their stake to Porsche, as the bid was for the bare minimum amount allowed by law. Still, the legal requirement had been met, allowing Porsche to continue gobbling up the automaker according to its own timetable. Earlier this year, the VeeDub board approved a request by Porsche to obtain 51-percent of the company for some $15.73 billion, which would give it a majority stake. Before the house that Ferdinand built could complete its acquisition, the European Commission required it to make one last purchase, which took place in June of this year. Finally, the EU has granted its permission for the buyout. This story is likely far from over, as the...
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Filed under: Trends , Euro , Earnings/Financials Russia has just passed Germany as Europe's largest market for new car sales -- for the first half of the year, at least. In fact, Russian consumers managed to snatch up 41% more cars for the first half of this year as compared to the previous year. Not only that, but the vehicles being sold in Russia are more profitable than before as well, with the record $33.8 billion in sales so far an increase of 64%. Top marques are General Motors and Hyundai, which replace last year's first and second place finishers, Ford and Toyota. Russian brands? Not so much . Don't expect the sales figures to cool down any time soon, as the economy in Russia is still booming and it's the middle-class that is seeing the biggest benefit. Older cars will continue to be taken off the road as consumers purchase new replacements which will allow automakers to find an estimated 20-percent of the entire industry's growth in the Russian market over the...
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Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials , FIAT If you told us a year ago that Fiat was going to sign a deal with the government of Serbia, we'd have laughed. But that was before the country announced that it was accepting tenders for investment in the state-owned automaker Zastava, makers of the famous Yugo (aka Skala 55 ). The process started back in December when the Serbian government made the announcement , sparking interest from various automakers . But even as recent as last week, the Fiat stance was that it was still considering the proposition. Well, it appears the Italian auto giant has done thinking, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with Serbia to establish a joint venture that involves Fiat investing a staggering 700 million euros (!) into Zastava's manufacturing facilities in exchange for a majority stake in the company, known in full as Zavodi Crvena Zastava. The Serbian government, meanwhile, will contribute some...
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Filed under: Euro , Earnings/Financials , Ferrari Click for more images of the Pininfarina Sintesi Pininfarina has confirmed the three new shareholders who will take stake in the company as part of its 100 million euro capital increase. As we reported previously, Piero Ferrari, son of the late Enzo Ferrari and vice-chairman of the eponymous Maranello sportscar firm, and Alberto Bombassei, chairman of the Brembo brakes company, will take shares, in addition to the Marsiaj family at the helm of Italian seatbelt manufacturer Sabelt. The increased capital will finance the development and production of the upscale electric minicar Pininfarina will produce together with French industrial group Bollore and Indian automaker Tata. The car is expected to begin production in 2010 with 2000 units, ramping up to a full capacity of 15,000 units by 2012 with sales in the United States, Europe and Japan. Although the size of each new shareholder's stake has yet to be confirmed, the shares will come...
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Filed under: Euro , Earnings/Financials There's breaking news and then there's braking news. In a development of the latter, Brembo is considering investing in Pininfarina. The news is part of a larger development that has Indian automaker Tata and sportscar scion Piero Ferrari taking stake in the design house, and could involve several other investors including Vincent Bollore to raise 100 million euros in capital for an electric car venture between the French investor and the Italian styling firm. Currently, the Pininfarina family holds 55-percent of the eponymous company, but is willing to share its shares with additional investors in order to keep the company in the black and moving forward. [Source: Automotive News Europe - Sub. Req.] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials After going into bankruptcy protection, Bertone may very well be in the worst shape it's ever been in its 96-year history. But that doesn't mean there aren't enough companies out there interested in acquiring the famous carrozzeria's assets, including its venerated name. Although the process undertaken by the court-appointed commissioners remains secretive, reports suggest that several companies have contacted the administrators putting forth bids on Bertone. Among them are Chinese automaker FAW, Indian carmaker Mahindra, Italian contract manufacturer DR Motor, German engineering firm PCL Group and, perhaps most intriguingly, Giorgetto Giugiaro's rival atelier Italdesign. The reported list of the bidders may very well change as the courts seek a suitable buyer for Bertone, but the prospects are looking good for the famous design studio and its anxious 1,300-strong workforce. [Source: Automotive...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Euro , Infiniti , Earnings/Financials It's easy to forget that the luxury brands the Japanese automakers started in the late '80s were established specifically for the U.S. market. However, much like its competitors, Nissan's Infiniti brand has expanded outside of North America, establishing itself in several Asian markets, and is now in the midst of an all-out assault on Europe. Infiniti Europe hopes to have 78 dealers across the continent by the end of 2010 selling an initial line-up consisting of the new EX (shown), FX and G models. It's also reportedly considering the development of a compact crossover around the size of the Audi A3 specifically targeted for Europe. Nissan realizes, however, that it will take a long time for Infiniti to establish itself in the market, and as a result is planning to financially subsidize its European dealerships in the short term until they can turn a profit. [Source: Automotive News Europe - sub. req'd]...
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Filed under: Aftermarket , Concept Cars , Euro , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials We've posted a number of articles in recent months about coachbuilders like Pininfarina and Bertone finding themselves in financially troubled waters. The difficulties these and other independent manufacturers around Europe are suffering now appear to be part of a larger trend that's forcing these companies to either adapt to the changing market or face extinction. While major manufacturers once subcontracted the production of niche vehicles - sports cars and convertibles especially - to smaller companies, the larger carmakers have been adapting their assembly lines towards small runs of diverse automobiles, leaving the indie coachbuilders with declining business. As a result, Pininfarina, for example, has been dipping further and further into the red , while Bertone was forced to sell its business on the verge of bankruptcy hearings . Industry experts now advise that the coachbuilders will...
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Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials Only days before heading to bankruptcy court, Italian engineering firm and carrozzeria Bertone revealed that it was about to pull a last-minute trick out of its sleeve in an announcement later that day . But when the announcement didn't come, the industry was left wondering if, after 95 years in business, Bertone was about to slip away. The company's chairwoman and family scion Lili Bertone, however, announced last night that her company would be sold to Gruppo Prototipo chief Domenico Reviglio. Likewise based in Turin, Gruppo Prototipo focuses on testing pre-production vehicle prototypes. It owns the famous Nardo high-speed test facility , and since the late '90s has been the sub-contractor for most of the Fiat Group's testing requirements. The announcement came as a surprise to the Italian business community, which widely believed negotiations with business mogul Gianmario...
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Filed under: Time Warp , Euro , Government/Legal , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials Remember the Yugo? The little hatchback was built by Yugoslavian state-owned automaker Zastava Automobili and came to the US market in 1986 with a list price under $4000. Zastava started producing cars in 1955 but closed in the 90's during the Balkan wars that crippled the local economy and damaged its factory in Kragujevac, some 70 km outside of Belgrade. The company picked up production again once the wartime dust settled, repaying its debts to Fiat in 2005 and began building previous-generation Puntos, which the company badges as the Zastava 10 and sells around the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa. Zastava has since ceased production of the original Yugo, and in addition to the Puntos, is preparing to assemble Opels next year at its plant, which has an annual capacity of 60,000 units. The company is now in the hands of the Privatisation Agency, the branch of the Serbian...
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Filed under: China , Euro , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials , Chery , Alfa Romeo , FIAT Hot on the heels of Nanjing Auto's merger with SAIC , Fiat has announced it has pulled out of the automotive joint venture it had embarked upon with Nanjing. The Sino-Italian operation had been a money-losing enterprise for years. Fiat says that Nanjing failed to live up to its commitments to the joint venture after the Chinese auto group took over MG Rover, and that the divorce will enable the Italian automaker to re-strategize its business in China. Fiat is expected to partner instead with Chery Automobiles, which just announced another joint venture with Israel Corp . Fiat and Chery are in the process of setting up another joint venture to produce 175,000 cars annually starting in 2009, and leading to the introduction of Fiat Group division Alfa Romeo to the Chinese market. The separation affects only the cooperation between Fiat and Nanjing on the production of passenger cars, and...
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Filed under: Euro , Earnings/Financials , Spyker If you're a regular reader here on Autoblog, it should come as no surprise that Spyker is in deep financial trouble . The exotic Dutch carmaker was forced to sell off its F1 team , cancel the production of the C12 Zagato supercar and even mortgage its own name . Never content to go quietly into the night, however, Spyker is on a campaign to raise funds. The latest endeavor has been to court European investors, but negotiations with Lichtenstein-based ACI recently fell through after an initial agreement was signed. According to reports, Spyker is now in negotiations with Snoras Group, a Lithuanian bank, to fund and potentially acquire stake in the Dutch automaker. Spyker says it has a few other possibilities on tap, and hopefully one of them will come through to rescue the company and its beautifully quirky automobiles. [Source: Motor Authority] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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