Article intéressant sur les déboires de GM...

[Tzar]

On parle beaucoup de ces temps-ci des déboires graves de GM.

Business Week a un article en profondeur cette semaine qui fait le tour et qui explore les pistes de solutions. Très intéressant. On y explique assez bien pourquoi GM est dans un véritable carcan et est incapable de réduire sa structure de coûts fixes. Pour le moment toutefois, l'incroyable pile de cash que GM a tout de même réussi à accumuler au cours de la dernière décennie lui donne quelques années pour se sortir de cette situation.

L'article est ici:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932001_mz001.htm

[STONE_COLD]

Je suis pas inquiet pour GM, les américains sont gros orgueilleux pour laisser aller ce gros bateau à la dérive. D'ailleurs des leurs va venir à la rescource:

La société d'investissement de l'homme d'affaires Kirk Kerkorian est prête à faire une offre d'achat jusqu'à 868 M$US pour accroître sa participation dans General Motors (GM).

Le titre de GM gagne 15,48% à 32,07$ en après-midi à la suite de cette nouvelle. Le secteur automobile est aussi en hausse.

La société de Kerkorian veut faire l'acquisition de 28 millions d'actions, soit 4,95% du capital, ce qui multipliera par plus de deux sa participation dans le constructeur, à 8,84% du capital.

Pour certains analystes, le moment est bien choisi pour acheter des actions de GM, qui sont en baisse de 30% depuis le début de l'année. La société a subi une perte de 1,1 G$US au 1er trimestre, sa pire performance en dix ans

[STONE_COLD]

J'ai trouvé d'autre information sur le bonhomme. Il faut vraiment avoir rien à faire à 87 ans :roll: Dépense ta forture bonhomme :!:

On ne peut pas dire que le gars n'est pas patriotique. :!:

Investors in troubled General Motors Corp. were betting Wednesday that 87-year-old billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's surprise proposal to acquire a large stake in the company could be a catalyst for better times at the world's largest automaker.


GM shares soared more than 18 percent Wednesday after Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. offered to pay almost $870 million for a nearly 5 percent stake. That would boost Tracinda's holdings to about 9 percent and make Kerkorian one of GM's largest shareholders.


GM shares fell to a 10-year low in April after the company reported a $1.1 billion loss for the first quarter. Its sales have slumped in recent months, including those of its most profitable sport utility vehicles, as gasoline prices marched higher. And while GM executives complain about huge increases in medical insurance costs, the United Auto Workers union has said it's not interested in reopening contract talks before 2007 to address those expenses.


Tracinda officials said Kerkorian would have no comment beyond the statement released early in the day saying the proposed purchase was for investment purposes only. But his motives prompted speculation on a variety of scenarios, including that he might desire a controlling stake in the automaker.

"His history is that he's never been a passive investor in any of the companies he's gotten involved with," said Burnham Securities analyst David Healy.

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Tracinda is the majority owner of casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage Inc. It was the largest shareholder in Chrysler Corp. when the automaker merged with DaimlerBenz in 1998.

Kerkorian, whose net worth is estimated at $8.9 billion by Forbes, is Tracinda's sole shareholder.

[BedZ]

Ouain ben, la lumière n'est pas encore arrivée au bout du tunnel:

Douche froide sur les marchés

Déjà prudents en avant-midi, les marchés américains ont battu en retraite durant la deuxième partie de la journée, sous l'effet d'une révision à la baisse de la cote de Standard & Poors sur la dette des géants General Motors et Ford.

L'agence de notation Standard & Poors a semé l'émoi en bourse en après-midi, en abaissant la cote de crédit de GM et de Ford au rang de «pacotille» en raison d'une baisse de leurs parts de marché. Les deux titres ont réagi par des chutes tournant autour de 5%. Il en coûtera désormais plus chers aux deux géants de l'automobile pour contracter des emprunts, au moment où le coût de leurs régimes de pension grimpe en flèche.

[Minou]

Et cet autre...
L'allusion avec les compagnies d'aviation est juste. Demandez aux anciens actionnaires et fournisseurs d'Air Canada?

Still Think Ford, General Motors Can't Go Bust?: Mark Gilbert
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Anyone who says it's unthinkable that either General Motors Corp. or Ford Motor Co. might seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection should call Francisco Landaez.

After working 24 years at Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Landaez lost his job and decided to put his savings in ``something secure.'' He invested about $280,000 in General Motors bonds and shares.

``I made an analysis about a year ago, asking myself what company is it almost impossible to see going bankrupt,'' Landaez, 50, said in a telephone interview from his home in Caracas. ``I decided to put my money into General Motors. When I looked at my account a month ago, it was down almost 30 percent.''

Landaez knows he's in for another nasty shock next time he checks his investment. Yesterday, Standard & Poor's analyst Scott Sprinzen slashed his credit rating of General Motors to junk with a two-step cut that puts the world's biggest automaker at BB. Nine minutes later, he whacked Ford to junk as well, with a BB+ grade.

For good measure, Sprinzen strapped a ``negative'' outlook to his assessments of both companies, meaning their ratings are more likely to decline further than recover.

Many investors aren't allowed to own securities with such low grades. And with GM's 8.375 percent bonds repayable in 2033 trading at about 74 cents on the dollar, while Ford's 7 percent 2013 notes are worth about 90.5 cents, anyone who hasn't already bailed out of the securities stands to lose a chunk of change.

Interesting Dilemma

Speaking of losing money, what was Kirk Kerkorian thinking when he offered earlier this week to buy 28 million GM shares at $31 each, adding to the 22 million shares he already owns via his Tracinda Corp. investment company?

General Motors stock has lost 70 percent of its value in the past five years.

The junk ratings pose an interesting dilemma for Lehman Brothers Inc., which says about 90 percent of institutional investors use its bond indexes to guide their investment decisions. Under the existing criteria, borrowers drop into the high-yield index, out of the investment-grade category, when either S&P or Moody's Investors Service judges them to be junk.

Starting July 1, however, the index rules change to include Fitch Ratings, taking the middle assessment. So provided the $375 billion of combined debt from Ford and General Motors doesn't get cut at Moody's or Fitch, investors face the unprecedented prospect of the bonds dropping out of the investment-grade indexes this week, only to leap straight back in again in less than two months.

Swift Collapse

The collapse in creditworthiness of the two biggest U.S. automakers has been swift. As recently as January, UBS AG's London- based credit analyst Juan Carrion was telling investors ``we do not see any negative rating action for either Ford or General Motors in 2005.''

It now costs about $865,000 per year to insure $10 million of GM debt for five years by using credit derivatives, up from about $213,000 at the start of the year. Insurance on Ford debt costs about $690,000, up from $173,000. The higher the cost of insurance, the less certain investors are that their debts will get repaid.

GM owes its bondholders about $113 billion, of which almost $15 billion falls due this year with an additional $27 billion scheduled for repayment next year. Bond investors have lent $97 billion to Ford, with $12 billion repayable this year and almost $20 billion in 2006.

Where the Buck Stops

S&P highlighted its concern that both companies are too reliant on sport utility vehicles, which are likely to be less profitable in coming years. And while Sprinzen said in a television interview he's ``not pointing to management,'' chief executives Rick Wagoner at GM and William Clay Ford Jr. at Ford should be thinking about handing back the keys to the chief executive suites.

``The downgrade to non-investment grade reflects our conclusion that management's strategies may be ineffective in addressing GM's competitive advantages,'' S&P said in the statement explaining its rating cut. On Ford, the rating company said there's ``skepticism about whether management's strategies will be sufficient to counteract mounting competitive challenges.'' In other words, the guys in charge aren't able to fix the problems.

``We will take whatever measures are necessary, and we will succeed,'' Ford Jr. wrote in a letter to his employees yesterday, following the rating cuts.

Too Big to Fail?

Unfortunately, those measures may have to include seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors while Ford and GM come up with reorganization plans to address falling market share and crippling health care and pension costs. If it's good enough for the airline companies, there's no reason to rule it out for the automakers. There's no such thing as ``too big to fail,'' however tragic bankruptcy would be.

Landaez in Caracas says he has decided to stick with his GM investment for now, figuring that it's not worth taking the hit and praying that General Motors doesn't go bankrupt before it repays his bonds, which come due in 2014.

``It's pretty scary,'' says Landaez. ``The bottom line is, there's nothing secure in this world any more.''



To contact the writer of this column:
Mark Gilbert in London at magilbert@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 5, 2005 19:20 EDT

[Stéphane Dumas]

et un autre trouvé à http://www.cheersandgears.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16110

[Stéphane Dumas]

j'ai trouvé cette nouvelle-ci sur un autre forum, voici le lien direct http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050507a3.htm