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FORD - USA - In Troubles
* Overhauls Way Forward plan
Cuts include 14,000 white collar jobs, fourth-quarter dividend; North American operations likely not profitable before 2009; market share expected to be around 15 percent
Detroit,Mich,USA -Automotive News, by Amy Wilson -Sept 15, 2006: -- Ford Motor Co. said today it will cut its operating costs by $5 billion and cut its salaried work force by one-third, or about 14,000 positions, as it speeds up its Way Forward restructuring plan... Ford also said it will not pay a stock dividend for the fourth quarter and made no commitment to future dividends, and will sell or close all former Visteon plants by the end of 2008 and close other plants... Company officials also said the automaker does not plan to sell off any part of its finance arm, Ford Motor Credit, and that the Jaguar brand is not for sale at this time... Ford will offer early retirement and buyout packages to its white-collar employees to try to achieve the planned job cuts of about 14,000 to its North American salaried work force... That 14,000 number already includes the equivalent of 4,000 positions eliminated in the first quarter of 2006... That means Ford has another 10,000 positions to trim... If it can’t achieve that number through voluntary departures, Ford said it would use involuntary separations... Most employees are expected to depart by the end of the first quarter of 2007... The white-collar job cuts come on top of a buyout offer Ford made Thursday, Sept. 14, to its 75,000 UAW members in the United States. That buyout offers up to $140,000 to get hourly workers to leave the automaker...
* To cut as many as six executive positions this year
Reductions start with resignations of Anne Stevens, Dave Szczupak
Detroit,Mich,USA -Automotive News, by Amy Wilson -Sept 15, 2006: -- Ford Motor Co. will eliminate as many as six senior executive positions between now and the end of the year. The initiative, part of the struggling automaker's revised restructuring plan, began Thursday, Sept. 14, with the announced exits of Anne Stevens and Dave Szczupak, two key Ford manufacturing experts... The reduction will include at least one executive exiting at each of the following levels: executive vice president, senior vice president, group vice president and vice president, Laymon said. The total officer reduction, including Stevens and Szczupak, will total no more than five or six, he said...
* No North America profitability before 2009
Detroit,Mich,USA -Automotive News, by Amy Wilson -Sept 15, 2006: -- The automaker now acknowledges that it won't return its North American automotive unit to profitability by the end of 2008 as previously planned. Because of further expected market share declines, Ford now says that full-year profitability for the unit is not expected before 2009...
* Is Jaguar an endangered species for Ford?
Detroit,Mich,USA -Reuters -Sept 15, 2006: -- Ford Motor Co. refuses to give up the luxury car Wall Street says it can no longer afford to keep. Ford, which unveiled its third restructuring plan in five years today, said its Jaguar luxury brand was not for sale, although it said it would continue to study options for the money-losing luxury car line...
* Canada - Ford union urges action on auto imports
Toronto,CAN -Reuters -Sept 15, 2006: -- The Canadian government must do more to support the domestic auto industry or risk facing more plant closures such as the one announced by Ford Motor Co. today, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers said...
* Shares meet 'disappointing reality'
New York,NY,USA -MarketWatch, by Padraic Cassidy -Sep 15, 2006: -- Ford Motor Co.'s shares wilted Friday, suffering a punishing 13% drop, their biggest decline since trading resumed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001... Unless newly appointed Chief Executive Alan Mulally can push through more changes, big name investors said the stock could fall further. Merrill Lynch advised clients to sell Ford shares, with a stark cut to a sell rating. The shares had climbed in anticipation of the announcement Friday but met with "disappointing reality," the analysts wrote... The surprise, according to analysts, was the suspension of the automaker's dividend and the admission that its market share would fall to the low 16% range from the year-to-date mid-17% estimate -- not to mention Ford's long term goal of 14% to 15% market share. North American capacity is being cut to 3.6 million units by the end of 2008. That's 26% fewer than in 2005... Not all analyst reaction was negative. If the shares touched below $8 -- which they did soon after trading began Friday -- Goldman Sachs recommended Ford for investors "playing the restructuring theme" on hopes Mulally could make some headway in turning the automaker around...
posted by Unknown @ 10:25 AM
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