Comments on: SAIC and Dongfeng taking aim at Detroits Big Two?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:51:18 +0000

My firm has gotten countless calls from Chinese companies looking to buy US suppliers, but none of these has ever gone anywhere because the prices sought seem to be about double what the Chinese (these companies anyway) are willing to pay.

By: woxihuanpijiu

woxihuanpijiu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:28:03 +0000

Didn’t congress ask them to show where/how/why they needed the money and they had no answer. Hopefully they have a better repsonse when they meet again in Dec. Why congress didn’t ask the same about bailing out Wall Street is beyond me.
Personally I don’t think Chrysler should get anything as they are owned by an investment firm (cerebus)which also has its hand in the GM pie (gmac) as well. Shouldn’t this be a conflict of interest?

By: woxihuanpijiu

woxihuanpijiu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:20:31 +0000

Holden as a brand is probably stronger than most people outside AU-NZ think. No new vehicles out of the GMH brand are sold so everything (GM branded) is a Holden in the publics eyes. Only the Commonwhore is made in Australia but that like other GM vehicles are sourced worldwide and are part of the GM global food chain as are many Ford vehicles as well. Selling Holden will make GM lose more money in the long term.

On a plus side, SAIC buying Holden might bring the V8s back to Shanghai for a second time;)

By: charlie

charlie — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:11:50 +0000

Aussies don’t own GM and have no say on what happens to Holden.

The real issue is in a GM liquidation something like Holden is only worth the branding; the relationships between other GM entities and suppliers would make it impossible to keep it together as a going concern.

By: mememe

mememe — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:52:00 +0000

I don’t know why SAIC and Dongfeng need to get themselves this mess though, even the Big Three countrymen in the US there won’t help them/bail them out.

By: Ash

Ash — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:47:20 +0000

Charlie,
Rumor has it that SAIC may stick an offer in for GM-Holden, but will the aussies be willing to see their ‘national brand’ dissappear into China?

By: charlie

charlie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:43:39 +0000

that is about $500 million US, which is what GM loses in about two weeks.

The idea that the Chinese could go after suppliers in the US is not laughable. Not sure how it helps the Chinese, though. The value of a supplier is the relationships to a line of cars – and if that line disappears a supplier is worth pennies on the dollar. I guess they could just take the factory and ship it to China, but I suspect the Chinese have already done that…..

You could easily split Holden, Daweoo and the GM china JVs into a newcorp and try to sell that to the Chinese. Maybe toss Buick in their for the brand name.

By: dogtucker

dogtucker — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:35:06 +0000

I hardly think that 3.8 Billion RMB is massively profitable – convert that into USD and then look at their other debts, its not even a spit in the bucket.

By: I_Hate_China

I_Hate_China — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:10:05 +0000

I hope any would be Chinese buyer of GM and Chrysler should be aware that GM has a short-term debt of $25 billion owed to its suppliers. Take over GM, and watch all those GM suppliers fly over to China with unpaid bills worth $25 billion…