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    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late)

    patpending
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    • Post n°1

    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late) Empty Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late)

    Post by patpending Thu May 28, 2009 5:14 am

    One interesting thing about these articles was that Opel has 15% market share in Germany and 25,000 workers, while Vauxhall has 19% (or 14%?) in the UK and 5,000 workers whose jobs are at considerable risk.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/5397960/Talks-over-GMs-Vauxhall-and-Opel-businesses-stall-on-new-cash-demand.html

    Talks over the fate of General Motors' European operations, including the two Vauxhall plants in Britain, failed to deliver an agreement after the car maker asked the German Government for an emergency loan of 300 million euros (£260m).
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/5396317/Vauxhalls-American-dream-dies.html


    The British car maker is fighting for its life as parent GM faces bankruptcy.



    I was surprised to read this:

    Today, Vauxhall is one of the leading car brands in the world, selling in the UK, US, Brazil and China.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1189039/Beijing-Automotive-makes-bid-gatecrash-ailing-Vauxhalls-sale.html?ITO=1490
    Beijing Automotive makes bid to gatecrash ailing Vauxhall's sale
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    streetrover
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    • Post n°2

    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late) Empty Re: Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late)

    Post by streetrover Thu May 28, 2009 9:59 am

    The last article in full:
    Chinese car producer Beijing Automotive attempted to gatecrash the auction for Vauxhall, as the German government prepared to whittle down the list of bidders.

    Ailing U.S. parent General Motors, which is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, is seeking an investor for its European business, which includes the Vauxhall and Opel marques.

    Germany is leading the negotiations with four bidders. Italy's Fiat and Canadian car-parts group Magna are seen as the favourites, but it has not written off bids from financial firm RHJ International and Beijing Automotive.
    Berlin has agreed to underwrite billions of euros in loans to help rescue GM Europe, and chancellor Angela Merkel was last night due to reveal a preferred bidder. But sources indicated the Germans would continue talks with two parties.


    Union leaders fear Vauxhall and its 5,000 UK workers could suffer in the takeover because the British government has taken a back seat in the negotiations.

    But, business secretary Lord Mandelson last night said Britain would provide funds to the new owners in return for guarantees that it would retain Vauxhall's plants at Luton and Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
    Perhaps we should look at it this way: the German government is only interested in FIAT and Magna. An investment firm or Chinese player will just get rid of the unwanted parts and we know where most of them are.

    Naturally GM is interested in the easiest and biggest exit strategy and the most wonga. That may well be the same people the German government are interested in...

    Meanwhile HMG have their own favourites and have been busy with the bidders though not necessarily financially (well not publically anyway). Whose to say it isn't Beijing Automotive that floats Mandy's boat? If any part of the European operation was gpoing to survive under BA it would be the UK manufacturing arm and German R&D.

    So heres hoping Mandy makes it worthwhile for the other two parties (GM and the German government) to consider the best bidder for the job from a neutral point of view - or from a UK point of view...
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    • Post n°3

    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late) Empty Re: Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late)

    Post by patpending Thu May 28, 2009 1:34 pm

    streetrover wrote:
    Perhaps we should look at it this way: the German government is only interested in FIAT and Magna....
    it's General Election year in Germany, too, so it's a slightly less panicky (but no less politically-motivated) version of that one week the British Government paid the wages at Longbridge...

    mind you, Vauxhall can only be made attractive with our money, and the
    government has already run out of that. Our money is no guarantee of
    success, either...why should Ellesmere Port survive when Linwood (built
    with our money, which has proved wasted) has been flattened?


    Last edited by patpending on Thu May 28, 2009 1:39 pm; edited 1 time in total
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    • Post n°4

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    Post by streetrover Fri May 29, 2009 6:04 am

    Germany used to have lots of money too but it was the likes of car manufacture that provided it, and a lot of inflated paper money in Frankfurt which still hasn't found its natural level.
    Meanwhile the UK government has trillions tied up in bank equity and can be underwritten whenever they want! They also are owed hundreds of billions from other countries (notably the US) and now believe in economic stimulus projects like new railways and lean car manufacturing to get the economy going.
    As for Opel, I can see BAIC (Beijing Auto) stepping in. Then when they are in trouble I can see SAIC stepping in.
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    • Post n°5

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    Post by patpending Fri May 29, 2009 9:04 am

    streetrover wrote:...Meanwhile the UK government has trillions tied up in bank equity and can be underwritten whenever they want! ...
    so are you suggesting they could put the bank shares up as collateral to borrow loadsa dosh to prop up Vauxhall?

    The "buy foreign" chickens really are coming home to roost. The Italians didn't go to Berlin so the Austro-Canadians, backed with Russian roubles, are current favourites in Germany to decide the future of the British subsidiary of the US giant... it's like playing "Owzat" with company mergers!

    Doh
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    • Post n°6

    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late) Empty Re: Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late)

    Post by patpending Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:32 am

    Now we have a fully-blown bid:



    BAIC bids €660m for GM Europe


    Beijing Automotive Industry Holding is offering to invest €660m (£570m) in Opel and Vauxhall in return for a 51pc stake in the business.

    By Graham Ruddick

    Published: 8:50PM BST 07 Jul 2009

    Its proposed deal would provide owner General Motors with a radically different proposal for the future of its European division.

    BAIC's offer document for GM Europe is understood to outline plans to rapidly expand operations inside China, the world's largest car market. The deal would need €2.64bn of guaranteed loans.

    The state-owned Chinese group would also look to cut 7,600 Opel jobs in Europe, primarily in Germany, Belgium and Spain rather than at Vauxhall in the UK. (my bold)

    GM is looking to sell a major stake in Opel and Vauxhall as part of its restructuring after collapsing into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US.

    A consortium led by Canadian group Magna and Russian bank Sberbank is the preferred bidder, but GM has indicated it is prepared to listen to other offers.

    The BAIC bid would leave GM with a much larger stake in the European business then (than with the) Magna (bid?), in which the US car maker has 35pc. However, the plans to expand in China mean the offer could be tripped up by disagreements about sharing
    intellectual property rights.

    Sources close to the negotiations said GM is treating the offer "seriously", but that it faces a battle to overcome Magna's head start. BAIC plans to build and sell 485,000 Opel vehicles in China through 400 dealerships by 2015, investing $2.25bn (£1.4bn).

    GM bosses are also considering an offer for Opel and Vauxhall from Brussels-based RHJ International.
    So it's a €660m bid with €2.64bn of guaranteed loans making 7,600 job cuts primarily outside the UK.

    The Magna bid is a €500m bid with €1.5bn guaranteed loans. As I recall, it planned to cut some 11,500 jobs (doubtless closing both Vauxhall factories, auto, motor + sport surmised) of which some 2,500 in Germany, while retaining a presence at all the current German Opel factories.

    There are some 18,000 workers at Opel's Rüsselsheim HQ. Not to slash bloated overheads and to wave goodbye to inefficient overcapacity in Germany (Bochum is widely recognised as inefficient) will be to saddle New Opel with a huge legacy burden.

    This map shows where Opel has its bases. The fact that it dooes not show the factory in Kaiserslautern does not necessarily mean the workers of K-Town should panic... Wink
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    • Post n°7

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    Post by Windy Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:40 pm

    patpending wrote:The state-owned Chinese group would also look to cut 7,600 Opel jobs in Europe, primarily in Germany, Belgium and Spain rather than at Vauxhall in the UK. (my bold)
    In case you are wondering why this Chinese company might favour the UK over others, cast your mind back a year:

    "At present, Beiqi holdings (Beijing Auto) management have stepped up the recruitment of talented staff.

    A year ago, Zhang Xin from the South Steam (Nanjing Automobile Corporation), general manager of NAC MG cars division went to join Beijing Automotive Holdings Passenger Cars Division to serve as party secretary and general manager. Following his move, one after another, dozens of SAIC, Iveco and MG talented people have followed to join the (North Steam) Beiqi Holdings passenger cars division." Source: http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2009-7-8/HTML_4EF8S53SRFT3.html


    Vaxhall has never had quite the same status as MG, but with Zhang Xin in charge ...
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    • Post n°8

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    Post by patpending Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:35 am

    Windy wrote:
    patpending wrote:The state-owned Chinese group would also look to cut 7,600 Opel jobs in Europe, primarily in Germany, Belgium and Spain rather than at Vauxhall in the UK. (my bold)
    In case you are wondering why this Chinese company might favour the UK over others, cast your mind back a year:

    "At present, Beiqi holdings (Beijing Auto) management have stepped up the recruitment of talented staff.

    A year ago, Zhang Xin from the South Steam (Nanjing Automobile Corporation), general manager of NAC MG cars division went to join Beijing Automotive Holdings Passenger Cars Division to serve as party secretary and general manager. Following his move, one after another, dozens of SAIC, Iveco and MG talented people have followed to join the (North Steam) Beiqi Holdings passenger cars division." Source: http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2009-7-8/HTML_4EF8S53SRFT3.html


    Vaxhall has never had quite the same status as MG, but with Zhang Xin in charge ...
    well fancy that!

    and are we saying he's not just any manager from NAC - he's the key one with the books who has evidently not retired too much?

    Vauxhall future - Beijing Automotive has bid (late) Img1134111

    and how about this report for the latest on Sino-Finnish co-operation?

    Welcoming remarks were offered by President Wen Xiaoming (NNU), Eero Tarasti, President of IASS,
    (it's a spurious match due to Professor Xin Bin I'm afraid)
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