Carmaker Geely seeks $1bn loans to buy Volvo December 1, 2009 Geely, the Chinese carmaker picked as the preferred bidder for Ford Motor’s Volvo unit, is seeking at least $1bn (£602m) in loans from Chinese banks to finance its $1.8bn bid, sources said yesterday. Geely, which means “lucky” in Chinese, is hungry for modern and innovative technologies from the Swedish brand to upgrade its car line [...]
Car Giant drives into the red but sees more models leave the showrooms November 16, 2009 CAR GIANT, the west London-based vehicle warehouse, plunged into loss-making territory last year, it emerged yesterday. The company was down £57,000 compared to profit in 2007 of £2.4m, despite increasing the number of used cars it sold by three per cent. It shifted nearly 50,000 hatchbacks and saloons over 12 months against a backdrop of [...]
GE Capital agrees loan with Jaguara November 16, 2009 JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) yesterday secured a £170m working capital facility from GE Capital. The five-year loan will help the money-losing car company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, as it is struggles in the global financial downturn. The loan will be drawn down as soon as vehicles are made in its three UK production lines. [...]
Germany: GM should find Opel funds independently November 12, 2009 GENERAL MOTORS (GM) should come up with its own financing for Opel, Germany’s economy minister Rainer Bruederle said yesterday, after the US carmaker axed plans to sell off its European arm. In a blow to the group, which is seeking state aid, he said GM should shoulder the responsibility of restructuring Opel, which trades as [...]
GM will stick with plan to cut Opel costs November 8, 2009 General Motors (GM) will probably stick to a plan to cut costs at Opel by 30 percent after deciding to restructure the European subsidiary itself rather than sell it, Bob Lutz, a GM executive set to become Opel’s chairman, said yesterday. “The restructuring plan developed at the end of last year is still the basis [...]
GMAC posts third-quarter loss on its mortgage loans after housing crash November 4, 2009 GMAC Financial Services, a US lender that has received $12.5bn ($7.54bn) in government assistance, posted a third straight quarterly loss yesterday as its mortgage business continues to reel from the housing market collapse. The third-quarter net loss for Detroit-based GMAC was $767m, compared with a loss of $2.5bn a year earlier. GMAC’s auto finance unit [...]
Umeco chief sees sales hit due to lower demand November 4, 2009 SUPPORT SERVICESUMECO, the group which provides parts for wind turbine blades, Formula One team cars and big commercial airplane makers, said yesterday its half-year profits slumped. Pre-tax profits hit £6.1m for the six months to end of September, down from £11.6m in the same period last year, as its composites arm was hit. Chief executive [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 2, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES VODAFONE’S GHANA DEAL ATTRACTS SFO INTERESTThe UK Serious Fraud Office has contacted Vodafone about its controversial deal to buy a controlling stake in Ghana’s third-largest mobile phone operator. The SFO has not launched an investigation into the deal, but is monitoring allegations of irregularity that have been made in Ghana. INDIAN SURGE BENEFITS [...]
CIT agrees pre-pack bankruptcy November 1, 2009 US-based commercial lender CIT Group filed for bankruptcy last night, as the global credit crisis left it unable to fund itself and the recession left it with too many bad loans. CIT’s creditors have already approved the century-old lender’s pre-packaged plan, which will result in them owning the company. Most bondholders will also end up [...]
US SLASHES PAY OF BAILED OUT BOSSES October 21, 2009 BARACK Obama’s pay tsar is planning to slash the salaries of the top 25 executives at seven bailed out firms by a staggering average of 90 per cent. And total compensation for the 175 executives will fall by an average of 50 per cent, as the US Treasury Department’s special master of compensationKenneth Feinberg cracks [...]