| Author | Message | ||
     David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 695 Registered: 4-2003 |
Just when you thought things in the car industry had stabilised; is this "kite-flying" or "where there is smoke, there is fire"? http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=22911&vf=12 | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 642 Registered: 9-2004 |
And this to-day: http://www.guardian.co.uk/cars/story/0,,1943035,00.html http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1999394,00.html Due to the commas in the address, I cannot include this in hyperlink format. To view each article, highlight the web address above and copy to a new browser page Cripes i wish them luck! Hi Pat, I changed the link to allow access and included a later article as well. Regards David (Message edited by david_gore on 01 February 2007) | ||
| Patrick Lockyer. Grand Master Username: pat_lockyer Post Number: 687 Registered: 9-2004 |
A little more info:PORSCHE. To help fund its takeover bid for Volkswagen AG, Porsche has taken on a loan of $46.67 billion and appointed several investment banks to arrange the credit. The sports carmaker recently lifted its stake in VW to 30.94%, a move, which under German law, forced it to launch a takeover bid. The new capital will be used to finance the public tender offer for the remaining shares and will eventually be refinanced with capital-market issued bonds. The actual loan is sub-divided into four main sections including two one-year bills and two three-year notes with a two-year term out option. Porsche will be submitting details to German regulatory bodies within the next four weeks and has to await final approval from before the official offer can be made. If approved, it means Porsche will have control of mass-market brands like Skoda as well as premium niche players such as Bugatti and Bentley. Thats serious money, the whole of Aston Martin was less than 1 billion GBP from memory. If all works out ok who would be next, BWM maybe, then the RR and Bentley will be back together again,under German control of course. | ||
| Peter Colwell Experienced User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 43 Registered: 3-2005 |
BMW next? Who knows?, but BMW is the world's only remaining car company that is controlled by one family, - the very private Quandt family own a majority of the shares. I would imagine that the Quandt family would not be impressed or attracted by cash alone. | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 1206 Registered: 4-2003 |
It's only a scam to prevent a takeover of VW by private equity, an event which has been on the cards for some time. However, if the DAX were to take a huge tumble, Porsche would be forced to buy VW and both companies would collapse. That's why the obligatory bid by Porsche is so pathetically low simply to satisfy their legal obligations of making a full takeover offer whilst increasing cross-ownership beyond the 30% threshold. They are gambling on a strong Bourse to survive. | ||
| Bob UK Unregistered guest Posted From: brig-cache-4.server.ntli.net |
I think the DAX would have to take a very huge fall for the value of VW to go so low that VW could collapse. Thats never going to happen. BMW on the other hand because of its structure of being owned by the Quandt family could easily collapse if DAX were to drop by a lesser amount than huge. Aston Martin has in the past had very low values and more than once Aston has been bailed out at the last minute. It is differcult to see who would want to buy Aston from Ford especally bearing in mind that the present Range of Astons are mirrored as Jaguars and the high content of Jag engines and Ford bits. The Jaguar content could mean that Jaguar has to go with Aston I suspect that Ford will have to pay another large engineering company to take Aston on and would not be surprised if the Chinese came sniffing.------- and maybe have Jaguar as well giving them Rover, Aston and Jaguar (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Peter Colwell Experienced User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 44 Registered: 3-2005 |
BMW is a very successful public company, owned by shareholders world-wide. The Quandt family have effective control by their majority holding, but they keep a very low profile. Collapse of BMW would pretty much mean collapse of capitalism as we know it, but in that extremely unlikey event, I strongly suspect the the family would take the company private again. BMW AG's health is a barometer of many things, and the signs to me are that its full steam ahead for quite some time to come, - for BMW and many others. And the German economy. | ||
| Peter Colwell Experienced User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 50 Registered: 3-2005 |
While speaking of BMW and peripheral matters, I came across this story today on a US business site; LONDON -- British engine maker Rolls-Royce said Monday that International Lease Finance Corp. has selected its Trent 1000 engines for 40 of the 74 Boeing 787 Dreamliners it has on order. The contract is valued at $US1.3 billion at engine list prices and supersedes a previous agreement for 10 firm aircraft. While there is no connection between the companies, it does mean that the logo will be seen in some very high and prestigious places for a long time to come...  | ||
| Peter Colwell Frequent User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 54 Registered: 3-2005 |
Still the one.... Qantas is currently running some new ads, you know, the warm fuzzy inner-glow type psycho ads. What caught my eye, - and no doubt my brain as it is supposed to, - is a half second clip of an engineer standing alongside a very large jet engine, with the RR logo (above) prominent on its side. Somehow, a GE logo would not have had the same soothing secure effect....subtle, but powerful. | ||
| Peter Colwell Frequent User Username: peter_colwell Post Number: 64 Registered: 3-2005 |
Further to my post above with the Boeing aircraft engine RR logo...this announced today; Rolls-Royce announced Friday that Qantas Airways has ordered Trent 900 engines to power eight additional Airbus A380s, in a deal valued at more than $575 million. This brings Qantas's Rolls-Royce powered A380 fleet to 20 aircraft. Now, while we all know that RR aircraft engines have nothing to do with the cars, nevertheless Qantas trades on the Rolls-Royce name by using a millesecond flash of the logo during one of its TV ads. The obvious implication being that RR is still the epitomy of solid and dependable. It is very effective, even though it is instantaneous. Somehow flashing 'GE' would not have the same effect. Those engines are worth about $640,000 each.. |
