|
Browse by Tags
All Tags » Earnings/Financials » general motors ( RSS)
-
|
Filed under: Government/Legal , Chrysler, LLC. , GM , Earnings/Financials President George W. Bush will doubtlessly be remembered for many things things, but his parting legacy may yet be his eleventh-hour pledge of $17.4 billion in low-interest loans to General Motors and Chrysler (Ford Motor Company has said it does not require relief at this time). The funding will reportedly come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the financial industry bailout package signed off on this fall. Up front, the White House will earmark $13.4 billion in short-term financing for December and January, and in February, another $4 billion will be disbursed, provided it can draw the funds from the second half of TARP's $700 billion. More details are doubtlessly coming, but the bridge loans appear to hinge largely on whether General Motors and Chrysler are deemed "viable" enterprises by the government. In the terms of the agreement, that means that the automakers must prove whether they...
|
-
|
Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , Plants/Manufacturing , Earnings/Financials Nekkei index plumments, GM retains the services of bankruptcy advisors At a little after 11:00 PM EST on Thursday, the U.S. automaker bailout bill failed to pass through the Senate. The legislation is dead and there are no plans for another bill to go through the process until the end of the year. To quote Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, this will be "a very, very bad Christmas" for many Americans. Over the past day, Senators have tried to resolve the House-passed bill so it could pass Senate Republican muster, but reports suggest that the UAW was unwilling to accept GOP demands that workers accept parity in pay and benefits. News of the failed bill has already spread to the markets across the Pacific, with the Nikkei index nose-diving over 6%. Things on this side of the world are bound to be worse when trading on the New York Stock Exchange begins tomorrow. According...
|
-
|
Filed under: Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , GM , Earnings/Financials General Motors' CEO, Rick Wagoner, who's been manning the helm for the last eight years and a part of its staff since 1977, has taken some heat for asking the Feds for a bailout. A possible condition for those funds may be the symbolic sacrificial death of its current leader, according to a slew of analysts polled by Bloomberg . Whether true of false, there seems to be a sense that the CEOs of U.S. automakers are some of "the dumbest people in the world," according to ex-Chrysler prez. Thomas Stallkamp. Ouch. Ford has stated that it doesn't need a bailout and Chrysler is actively looking for partners to keep itself alive. In the last few months, when the government has bailed out institutions such as AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one stipulation was that its top management be replaced, and that sentiment may stick around if the Detroit 3 receive packages of their own. Although Wagoner...
|
-
|
Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials With General Motors dropping its $2.5 billion bomb on Friday, analysts, brokers and the public at large were waiting until today to see where the General's stock price would end up. At the end of the day, it's hovering around $3.36 a share , up from this morning where it hit $3.04, or four pennies away from its lowest rate in over 60 years. The plunge is hardly a surprise as analysts -- and GM -- admit that without a Federally-funded cash injection the automaker would run out of working capital early next year, or worse, before the end of 2008. Throwing salt into the wound is Deutsche Bank, which reduced GM's rating to "sell" with a price target of $0.00. In addition to the $25 billion in loans that Congress has already approved, Detroit's Big 2.8 have asked for another $25 billion, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot off a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson trying to get the $700 billion bailout to the financial industry...
|
-
|
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , Earnings/Financials There are worse things than being forced to take vacation days -- like your employer going belly-up -- so General Motors is asking the tens of thousands of workers at its Vehicle Engineering Center and the Milford and Mesa Proving Grounds to stay home on December 22nd and 23rd. Factories won't plan any additional idle days in December, but the Engineering Center alone employs more than 16,000 people, so significant savings can be realized from those two additional days of quiet time. Just shutting out the lights and turning the heat back to 55 degrees, even in such large facilities, isn't going to turn GM around in a singular motion, but it's a low-impact way to conserve scarce money. It's also probably a lot easier to get the engineers to take time off than it is to fight with the unions at each assembly plant. One thing that would stick in our craw: if you've already used up all your vaca, you'll have...
|
-
|
Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials General Motors was supposed to issue a press release detailing its third quarter earnings results at 10:30AM EST this morning, a time which has come gone without a word from the General. As a result, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of the automaker's stock at 11:04AM pending the results. An interview that GM CEO Rick Wagoner had scheduled on Bloomberg Television to coincide with the earnings announcement at 10:30AM has also reportedly been pushed back to 12:55PM. The automaker is mum on what's taking so long to release its Q3 report, which is widely expected to contain terrible earnings news. While some are suggesting that the delay implies these results will be worse than expected, we don't see how waiting a few extra hours is going to change the numbers one way or another. We do, however, expect GM not to sugar coat its poor financial performance in the third quarter, as the louder it screams the sky is falling, the more...
|
-
|
Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , GM , Earnings/Financials Back in July, General Motors announced its plan to reduce salary spending by 20% and its white-collar workforce by 15% or 5,100 jobs. Those workers are out of a job on November 1st, but a new round of job cuts means even more empty cubicles for the world's largest automaker. The Detroit News is reporting that GM plans to lay off more white-collar workers despite having already reached its goal of reducing the company's salaried workforce by 5,100 jobs. While a specific number of how many more jobs would be cut wasn't given, a letter sent to GM execs confirms that more pink slips will be handed out by the end of this year and into early 2009. To further reduce spending, GM is also canceling certain employee benefits including its 401k matching program, tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance programs. All of these spending cuts are meant to help GM weather the storm until the auto industry bounces back from...
|
-
|
Filed under: Government/Legal , GM , Earnings/Financials A report by Barron's over the weekend cited (again) two unnamed sources that divulged General Motors has been after a loan from the Federal Reserve since last September. The Barron's article got somewhat specific about the unspecifics, namely how much, saying that the amount the General is after is unknown, "but it needs $5 billion to meet its goal of completing a $15 billion liquidity program, which actually is coming from cost cuts." Reuters (via Automotive News ) reports that GM isn't after the fed's cash, but isn't averse to the idea or "taking dramatic steps" to make ends meet during these tumultuous times. GM spokesperson, Greg Martin, said that the automaker isn't "actively pursing" the loans, but "you really can't rule out anything." M-kay. [Source: Barrons , Reuters , Automotive News - Sub. Req.] Permalink | Email this | Comments
|
-
|
Filed under: Government/Legal , Chrysler, LLC. , Ford , GM , Earnings/Financials No matter how you slice it, a proposed $25 billion loan from the Feds is a bailout, and that's exactly what Detroit's Big Three automakers are after, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Lobbyists for General Motors, Chrysler and Ford have met with White House officials, Rep. John Dingell and a smattering of Michigan Democrats to discuss the loan, with plans to unveil the proposal after Labor Day. The plan includes lending $25 billion to automakers in its first year at an interest rate of 4.5 percent (about one-third of what the companies are currently paying), with the government having the option to defer any payment for up to five years. Details are scarce, and naturally, GM, Ford and Chrysler reps aren't saying much, but if the automakers and the Feds are serious, expect more information to leak out before the proposal is officially announced. [Source: WSJ , Photo by Tracy O | CC2...
|
-
|
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , Earnings/Financials According to the Center of Automotive Research (CAR), General Motors is the trauma patient with doctors gathered around the gurney giving their all to save it -- and just outside the ER doors, nurses are holding back concerned parties and shouting "It's better that you don't see!" CAR Chairman Dave Cole says it comes down to revenue, and with GM's $15.5 billion Q2 loss , revenue is down by $10 billion vs. Q2 of 2007. Cole says "Revenue is a measure of the business going forward." We think that's a bit overstated, and that revenue is more accurately a measure of business just transacted. True, multi-billion dollar losses and revenue decreases don't make the best stories, but did anyone really expect it to be cotton candy canes as the world's -- possibly -- largest automaker transfers nearly its entire product lineup from trucks to cars and crossovers? Admittedly, GM has nothing but an...
|
-
|
Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials GM has had what can be conservatively called a difficult week . In a live press conference, CEO Rick Wagoner delivered sobering news about health care cuts, asset sales, retirement and separation packages, and the elimination of GM stock dividend. The doom and gloom hasn't scared off the General's Dealer Council, as 20 retailers purchased a combined $1m in GM stock to show their support. Of course $1m isn't going to help much in the face of $15 billion in cuts, but co-chair Duane Paddock wanted to make the gesture to show GM and its massive dealer body that the council believes in the struggling automaker. The move could be considered risky in light of the fact GM stock has dropped like a rock over the past couple months, and when the stock dropped to below $9 per share, it was a 50-year low point. So far the council looks both loyal and fiscally prudent. After Wagoner's press conference, GM stock rose by 16.6%. That translates into...
|
-
|
Filed under: Government/Legal , GM , Earnings/Financials A quick glance at today's announcements from America's largest automaker is an easy indicator that the U.S. auto market , at the very least, is under as strong as recession as could be imagined. According to Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the entire industry as a whole is facing a "perfect storm" of "record gas prices, rising steel prices, a credit market contraction that has made it more difficult for consumers to purchase autos, and a weakening economy that has shed jobs for six straight months." As the auto industry goes, so go the livelihoods of countless workers -- both directly employed by the Detroit 3 and indirectly supported by suppliers, dealers and the like -- making today's announcements from GM a "sobering reminder" of the current state of the U.S. economy. Still, Obama holds out hope that the right Federal policies could dig the industry out of the hole it currently finds...
|
-
|
Filed under: Chrysler, LLC. , GM , Earnings/Financials Despite recent rumblings to the contrary, both General Motors and Chrysler claim that they will not be going bankrupt any time soon. Still, as much as the two American automakers would love to quell fears of unsustainable liquidity, questions remain, especially as the pickup market in the United States continues to dwindle. In a note sent out to dealers, Chrysler's Jim Press and Steven Landry say that the automaker will focus its efforts on small cars for the rest of this year, though the current pickings from the automaker's stable seem a bit slim. Chrysler is surely banking on its alliances to bolster its line of small car offerings, which could help to dampen the blow of lost truck profits -- somewhat. General Motors , for its part, has invested heavily into its upcoming Delta platform vehicles, which will include a compact Chevrolet-branded car known as the Cruze as well as the Chevy Volt electric vehicle. [Source: Automotive...
|
-
|
Filed under: China , Cadillac , Chevrolet , Ford , GM , Earnings/Financials , By the Numbers While domestic sales continue to slide, the auto market in China is thriving. Both General Motors and Ford have reported double-digit sales growth for the first-half of 2008 in the world's most populace country, with GM moving 590,126 Buick, Chevrolet, and Cadillac vehicles for a total sales increase of 12.7 percent, while Ford sold 172,411 units for 21 percent jump in growth. With China recognized as the second-largest vehicle market outside the United States, and with their economy forecasted to grow by at least nine percent this year, automakers in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. are investing heavily to expand sales and production in the Chinese market. It is worth noting that vehicle sales in China have been nearly immune to the increase in global oil prices as governmental controls keep diesel and gasoline prices among the world's lowest. [Source: Detroit News ] Permalink | Email this...
|
-
|
Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , Earnings/Financials After Merrill Lynch hinted bankruptcy concerns yesterday, and other Wall Street analysts spread additional gloom, shares of General Motors dropped $1.77 to close at $9.98 -- GM's lowest close in more than 50 years. While GM stock on Tuesday showed a bit of promise on the news that sales only dropped 18.2 percent in June ( yes, it was supposed to be worse ), nothing could slow the fall on Wednesday. Unfortunately for GM, the light at the end of the tunnel seems a far way off. Sales are plummeting, and those vehicles that do leave the lot are padded with generous financing and rebate offers (experts quickly point out that incentive-laden sales gains are often followed by slowdowns). With eight brands, 13,000 franchises, and a falling market share, many have begun (or continued) to question GM's ability to survive without insolvency. [Source: Detroit News ] Permalink | Email this | Comments
|
More Posts Next page »
|
|
|