GM says death of Saab is a foregone conclusion January 7, 2010 General Motors joint chief executive Ed Whitacre said yesterday he is not hopeful a deal can be reached to sell Saab and said the American carmaker will start to wind-down the Swedish brand. GM is dropping its Pontiac, Saturn and Saab brands and selling Hummer as it restructures to return to profitability after emerging from [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 4, 2010 Coutts & Co The private bank has appointed Maggie Bradley as a client partner for its Oxford office, focusing on the local entrepreneur, professional and executive markets. Bradley joins from Coutts’ head office in London, where she has worked for the past five years, latterly as a business partner for international clients. Prior to that, [...]
GM goes for outsider as finance chief December 21, 2009 GENERAL Motors yesterday hired Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer of Microsoft , as its new finance chief, filling a key position with the carmaker’s highest-profile hire since its July bankruptcy. The hire brings another well known car industry outsider to GM’s shifting senior executive team at a time when it has been struggling to [...]
Wood eyeing Esure deal December 6, 2009 Insurance pioneer Peter Wood is understood to be preparing to buy out his Esure motor insurance business from Lloyds Banking Group. Esure, known for its “Calm down dear” TV ads starring celebrity Michael Winner, is thought to be worth £200m to £250m. Wood has lined up financing from buyout firm Penta Capital and hedge fund [...]
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 [...]