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AUTOS' OPINIONS WORLDWIDE
* USA - Familial Relations
USA -Forbes, by Joann Muller & Jonathan Fahey -4 Sept 2006: -- Ford's worried directors are prodding Henry Ford's heirs to consider the unthinkable: giving up control of the struggling automaker... When Ford Motor went public 50 years ago, Henry Ford's grandchildren debated how much control the family should retain. Chief Executive Henry Ford II was content with 25%, but his youngest brother, William Clay Ford, pushed for more... "I don't think 25% will keep us in the position of calling the shots," argued William, who eventually prevailed. The family kept 5% of the common stock but took 40% of the voting rights through their Class B shares. They've been calling the shots ever since... But now, amid a deepening crisis at the number two U.S. automaker, there are signs that William's only son, 49-year-old William Clay Ford Jr., could be the last of Henry Ford's heirs to run the company... Bill Ford and his cousin Edsel Ford II, are the only family members on the 12-member board. The 40% vote gives the family immense power (the next-largest holder, Brandes Investment Partners, has an 8.6% voting stake). But still, the board's patience with Bill Ford appears to be wearing thin, and the Sarbanes-Oxley rules of corporate governance don't make exceptions for family domination... Even as Bill Ford scrambles to salvage his six-month-old turnaround plan for North America, the company has hired--at Bill Ford's suggestion, the company says--a mergers and acquisitions specialist named Kenneth H.M. Leet to review its business and explore strategic alternatives...
* USA - Ford's Collision on Wall Street
Detroit,Mich,USA -Business Week -22 Aug 2006: -- Its shares slipped 6.6% as analysts downgraded the stock in the wake of the auto maker's announcement of fourth-quarter production cuts... The cut in production, the biggest fourth-quarter reduction in almost a quarter century, is significant because auto companies book revenue when they ship the vehicles from the factory, not when a consumer buys them. So the deep cut will hammer Ford's revenue and profits in the fourth quarter... Chief Executive Bill Ford is under pressure to address the issue of whether Ford has too many mouths to feed, both in terms of employees and brands. The company is in the midst of a review that could result in selling off some of its brands—namely Jaguar and Land Rover. Wall Street is hoping that Ford's announcement, due after a board meeting scheduled for Sept. 14, will include a broader restructuring of the company than Bill Ford has laid out so far this year...
* USA - Ford speeds up buyouts - Offers may extend to all U.S. plants
Dearborn,Mich,USA -The Detroit News, by Bryce G. Hoffman -August 22, 2006: -- Ford Motor Co. is weighing a major expansion of its attrition program for hourly workers and could extend buyout or early retirement offers to all of its blue-collar employees in the United States, sources familiar with the proposal said Monday... News that Ford is exploring an accelerated attrition program prompted some analysts to boost their ratings of the struggling automaker, but others remain skeptical of Ford's turnaround effort...
* USA - Ford's fundamental problem – the US buyer
USA -MSN Money -August 21, 2006: -- Plans to slash production at Ford's US car and pick-up truck factories are bad news for almost everyone involved: employees face another round of cost-cutting, suppliers lose sales worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the company will have its lowest fourth-quarter output since its 1981 crisis... Ford's second-half pre-tax profit will be hit by more than $2bn, according to JPMorgan analysts – a cost reflected in a round of credit-rating reviews and a further share price decline. Ford's shares have tumbled more than 7.5 per cent since Friday's announcement and stood at $7.55 in early afternoon trading on Monday...
* USA - It's time for Ford to give up and sell Jaguar - "No matter how often it tries, Detroit just can't cut it in luxury cars..."
NEW YORK,NY,USA -Fortune, by Alex Taylor III -August 21, 2006: -- We can only hope that Ford isn't deterred from selling Jaguar by the report that Hyundai isn't buying... Detroit's problems with quality and with making profitable small cars are well-documented. But nobody has satisfactorily explained why Ford, General Motors, or Chrysler, have not been able to develop a luxury brand to compete with the Germans, or even the Japanese... Ford has sunk $10 billion or more into Jaguar since it bought the British car maker in 1989, and today it's back where it started - rethinking Jaguar's entire business model...
* USA - Make A Bet on General Motors
USA -Forbes, by Marilyn Cohen -4 Sept 06: -- The domestic automakers are in a stew, with General Motors in the deepest... Nevertheless, GM, the largest company in what seems to be a dying U.S. industry, may get a new life. At least that's the possibility held out should dealmeister Kirk Kerkorian be successful in midwifing an alliance between GM's chief, Richard Wagoner, and Renault/Nissan Motor's, Carlos Ghosn... If the alliance goes through, GM may gain a cash infusion and cost savings from combining production with the French-Japanese partners... Then long-suffering GM bondholders won't be exposed to a Chapter 11 filing, which is the fate many investors mentally assigned the company not long ago. So now, on that basis, an investment in General Motors debt obligations might make sense...
posted by Unknown @ 6:18 PM
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