A few days ago, Ford Motor Co. was known as the only one of the ‘big-3′ US automakers to avoid bankruptcy this year. Now, to the surprise of many analysts, it is the first automaker to report a profit since the auto crisis. Ford posted a profit of US$997M, its first in four years, compared [...]
Yesterday, shares of Tata Motors Ltd. plunged 5.12% after the company announced that it had raised US$750 M through a rights offer, to help it pay down debt related to its acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover last year. Tata’s growing debt burden, which stood at approximately US$5.2B at the end of June, has ratings [...]
Ford Motor Co. is shifting attention to rapidly growing markers such as the Asia Pacific region, which is expected to lead the global rebound in auto-buying. Just yesterday, Ford’s CEO said it would “accelerate its presence” in the region as it launched a new small car in India, and announced that it would open a [...]
Luxury car maker, Porsche SE, is not looking as good as its cars right now, posting a 27.6% drop in sales, down to 53,635 cars in the nine months through to April 30, 2009. Porsche is also burdened by its high refinancing costs from Porsche’s EUR 9B purchase of over 50% of Volkswagen’s shares earlier [...]
Fia SpA and Chrysler LLC finally sealed the deal, forming the 6th largest car maker globally. After the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against the sale, the two announced that they had finalized a global strategic alliance to “begin operations immediately”. Chrysler’s good assets will be transferred to a new, restructured firm owned by [...]
Ford Motor Co, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid filing for bankruptcy, has raised the bar once again. The Company announced it will boost production this quarter and the next as it continues to capture market share while its main U.S. rivals remain under court protection. On top of this, Ford released better-than-expected U.S. [...]
General Motors Corp. inched closer towards what seems like an inevitable bankruptcy filing yesterday, when it failed to persuade enough of its bondholders to swap US$27B worth of debt for equity. The struggling automaker has until June 1 to reduce its debt by US$44B if it is going to be eligible for additional government bailout [...]
It is no surprise that investors of General Motors Corp. are worried. However, shareholders were frantic yesterday as they got hold of news that six executives (including former Vice Chairman and Product Chief – Bob Lutz) at the company had sold almost US$ 315K in stock, as well as liquidated their outstanding direct holdings in [...]
As a result of its high exposure to US and Japanese markets, where auto sales have plummeted to lows not seen in decades, Toyota Motor Corp has been especially hit hard. Toyota posted a colossal US$ 8.6B annual loss. The company said it would sell approximately 1 million fewer vehicles this year, as it scrambles [...]
As sales plummet and a June 1 deadline looms (at which time the Company must prove to the US Government that it can turn its business around and become profitable), General Motors Corp. posted a loss of US$6B. During the first quarter of 2009, GM burned through US$10.2B and failed to get its out-of-control costs [...]