General Motors (GM) 01 (Jun 08 - Jul 10 )

[helios]

do we have a position for GM?

unless it fell ~1.7?

[helios]

went in for a short while, only <1 hour, 2.7 & out 3.0

super volatile tonight, isn't it?

[helios]

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC must survive without becoming “wards of the state” and the companies have one last, limited chance to “fundamentally restructure.”

After his administration forced GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner to resign and pressed Chrysler to form a partnership with Italy’s Fiat SpA to get more taxpayer aid, Obama today said that company creditors, shareholders and workers will be expected to make more sacrifices.

Source: Bloomberg.com

[helios]

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. faces a structured bankruptcy managed by the U.S. government if the company can’t meet a deadline to drastically reduce debt in the next 60 days.

GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson, on his second day running the largest U.S. automaker, said yesterday that a strategic bankruptcy with government backing is less risky than traditional Chapter 11 protection, though it’s still not GM’s preferred method of survival.

Source: Bloomberg.com

[helios]

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. needs a “clean balance sheet” to demonstrate it is viable, Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said.

The automaker must also improve cash flow, restructure operations and make money on cars as well as trucks, he said in a news conference today.

[helios]

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama has determined that a prepackaged bankruptcy is the best way for General Motors Corp. to restructure and become a competitive automaker, people familiar with the matter said.

Obama also is prepared to let Chrysler LLC go bankrupt and be sold off piecemeal if the third-largest U.S. automaker can’t form an alliance with Fiat Spa, said members of Congress who have been briefed on the subject and two other people familiar with the administration’s deliberations.

While Obama two days ago gave GM 60 days to come up with deeper cost and debt reductions than the biggest U.S. automaker proposed in a viability plan submitted last month, the “quick and surgical” bankruptcy his administration described as an option appears to be inevitable, the people said. Obama personally signed off on asking GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner to step down, as he did on March 29, they said.

Source: Bloomberg.com

[iam802]

Maybe, 60 days...so that they have enough time to wire the 'final' resignation bonus to the CEO.... before all accounts are freeze.

[helios]

An auto bankruptcy may push production low enough to wipe four percentage points from U.S. gross domestic product in a single quarter, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said in a note yesterday, city the bank’s economists. One-third of the three million people employed in the industry could also lose their jobs, Reid said. The bank’s price target for GM is zero.

Source, update 2: Bloomberg.com

[iam802]

GM CEO: Bankruptcy Is Not Inevitable

(802: 'NOT Inevitable'.... why not just evitable?...double 'negative'. Nonetheless, GM is up a bit in a day full of reds)

----
http://www.cnbc.com/id/30065702

Bankruptcy is not inevitable for General Motors, said the automaker's new chief executive on Sunday, who is under White House orders to win more concessions from bondholders and unionized workers.

Fritz Henderson became chief executive a week ago after a White House auto task force rejected the turnaround plans submitted by GM and Chrysler. The automakers were told they had to write broader plans to restructure.

The U.S. auto industry, including dealers and suppliers, has cut 400,000 jobs over the past year while losing billions of dollars. GM received $13.4 billion last year and requested an additional $16 billion. Chrysler also has asked for a new round of aid.


Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if bankruptcy was inevitable, Henderson replied, "No." He said he intended to meet the administration's demand to move more rapidly and to cut more deeply.

The White House set a 60-day deadline for results.

"We are planning to get the job done. Our preference would be to do it outside of the bankruptcy process," Henderson said. "If it cannot be done outside a bankruptcy process, it will be done within it."

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said the goal was to make the automobile companies viable.

"We want these to be going concerns — not wards of the state," he told "Fox News Sunday." "So whether it comes from some sort of structured bankruptcy or another process, there is no doubt that for General Motors to survive and prosper, as we all want them to, they're going to have to do serious restructuring."


Henderson, also appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," said there would be more job cuts and plant closings.

"You can't really afford to take anything off the table," he said. He was not asked about efforts to rework $28 billion in debt to bondholders.

U.S. auto sales fell by 37 percent in March, the 17th month in a row of declines.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said there is "tremendous pain in our state" because of layoffs and financial losses in the auto industry, which is headquartered in Detroit.

"I do not support bankruptcy as the first, second or third option," Stabenow said. Bankruptcy could shift pensions for GM retirees to the federal government, she said.

Axelrod, asked about concessions by union workers, said they have already made concessions.

"What we shouldn't do is ask the sacrifices of the workers to be disproportionate," he told Fox. "But there's no doubt that everyone who has a stake in the future of this company is going to have to make sacrifices."

[iam802]

UPDATE: GM's Saab Expects To Be Sold By End Of June

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-200 ... 05077.html

By Ola Kinnander
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)--Saab Automobile AB, which owner General Motors Corp. (GM) is trying to sell, has more than 20 suitors and expects to be sold before the end of June, the struggling Swedish car maker told a Swedish court Monday.

The Vanersborg district court Monday granted Saab an extension of its reconstruction period. The carmaker met with creditors in court and argued successfully that it shouldn't immediately be forced into bankruptcy since it stands a chance of being sold and becoming profitable. Saab, fighting for its survival as its equally struggling parent company has said it seeks to unload its Swedish unit this year, had filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 20. Saab told the court it needs about $1 billion in the near future in order to continue production at its main plant in Trollhattan, Sweden, and to be able to launch the new models it has developed.

Of that $1 billion, $600 million would be a loan from the European Investment Bank and $400 million would consist of GM writing off loans and providing support for production of the new car models, Saab said.

Saab said it estimates selling 150,000 cars in 2011. It sold 93,000 cars in 2008.

Saab didn't identify any potential buyers, but said in documents filed with the court that "currently there are more than 20 actively interested parties." It said the management's presentation to the parties will begin "shortly" and the sales process should be completed by the end of June.

A Swedish government official who is the state's liaison with the auto industry told Dow Jones Newswires last week he thought some rival carmakers may be feigning interest in buying Saab to get access to its books and research and development plans.

The official, Joran Hagglund, said he believes Saab has three to five "serious" suitors. He said this might not be enough to save Saab, as the industry currently is in "freefall" and any buyers now may have several troubled carmakers to choose from.

In March Saab said it would lay off one fifth of its 4,100-strong workforce.

Saab said Monday it plans to roll out its new 9-3X model later this year, the 9-5 sedan in 2010 and the 9-4X in 2010.

Company Web site: www.saab.com, www.gm.com