CALDEIRÃO DE BOLSA

Chrysler to proceed with bankruptcy: administration official

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chrysler LLC will proceed with Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection now that talks with debtholders have broken down, an administration official said on Thursday.

Chrysler: Signs of survival emerge

As deadline approaches, source says troubled automaker will 'avoid liquidation.' Results of union vote on proposed new contract due Wednesday.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As the clock ticked down Wednesday on a government-imposed deadline for Chrysler LLC to prove its viability, expectations grew that the troubled automaker would survive.

Chrysler will not be forced to shut down, but the embattled company may still wind up declaring bankruptcy, according to a source familiar with the negotiations between Chrysler and the federal government.

"Chrysler will survive and avoid liquidation, whether that happens in or out of bankruptcy remains uncertain at this point," the source said.

The negotiations are expected to continue, possibly right up midnight Thursday, according an Obama administration official.

The Treasury Department's auto industry task force found in late March that Chrysler was no longer viable as a stand-alone company.

In order to qualify for additional federal assistance to keep the company afloat, the task force said Chrysler needed to undertake several restructuring efforts. Those included reaching deals with its creditors, its unions, as well as with Italian automaker Fiat. The government gave Chrysler until the end of April to accomplish those goals.

On Wednesday, the fate of Chrysler remained in doubt and many details about 11th hour negotiations to save it were unclear. But progress on several fronts was evident.

Fiat could finalize a deal with Chrysler even if the company is in bankruptcy, according to various reports, and may be close to doing so.

Major banks that are among those that have lent Chrysler $7 billion have already agreed to significantly reduce that debt, Treasury Department sources said Tuesday.

And on Sunday, Chrysler and UAW leaders said they had reached an agreement on major concessions that would reduce Chrysler's labor costs. The results of a vote by union members on that deal are expected Wednesday night.

The UAW has not released details of the proposed new labor pact, but the union has agreed to accept privately-held stock in Chrysler. The stock would go into a union-controlled trust fund that will be used to pay future health care costs for more than 55,000 Chrysler retirees and their family members.

Chrysler has just under 39,000 U.S. employees, 60% below the number of American workers it had at the beginning of the decade. It also has about 9,400 workers in Canada, where 87% of the Canadian Auto Workers union members ratified a separate labor deal over the weekend.

General Motors, which has also received federal help to avoid bankruptcy, has until the end of May to reach deals with its creditors and unions. It proposed a plan Monday that would give its creditors a 10% stake in that company, while giving the government and the union up to an 89% stake.

According to a report in the Washington Post, Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli would be replaced by Fiat management as part of a bankruptcy plan being finalized by Treasury.

The Obama administration, along with the Canadian government, would provide an additional $4 billion in financing while Chrysler is in bankruptcy, the Post reported. The United States would provide another $5 billion in support following a bankruptcy reorganization.

Under this plan, the United Auto Workers union's retiree health plan would get a 55% stake in the company, Fiat 35%, the U.S. government 8% and the Canadian government 2%, according to the Post.

Chrysler creditors would get $2 billion and no equity stake while Cerberus Capital Management, which now owns most of Chrysler, would get nothing, the report said.

GM offers final survival plan


DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp on Monday offered its final plan to reorganize outside bankruptcy by slashing bond debt, cutting over 21,000 more U.S. jobs and emerging as a nationalized automaker under majority control by the U.S. government.

GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said the automaker would file for bankruptcy protection if an offer to exchange bonds for company equity failed to cut $27 billion in bond debt by about 90 percent or other changes faltered.

Analysts doubted the debt exchange offer would succeed, setting up GM to restructure in Chapter 11.

GM's bondholder's blasted the terms of its debt-exchange as a back-room deal designed to protect the interests of its major union the United Auto Workers, a group that campaigned for President Barack Obama in last year's election.

Representatives of the bondholders said GM and the Obama administration were gambling on a risky and "legally questionable" strategy for a company that once ranked as an icon of American industrial and economic strength.

The White House said on Monday the U.S. government had no desire to run a domestic automaker despite the potential controlling interest.

"We strongly back an auto industry that we believe can and should be self reliant," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "It is not our desire to either own or run one of the auto companies."

GM's new strategy, which will also jettison the Pontiac brand and shut down production of Saturn brand cars this year, underscored how quickly and far it has fallen since last summer when executives, including Henderson, were insisting that the automaker could restructure under a program of "self help."

Separately, Chrysler lenders were expected to receive a new offer from the U.S. Treasury as early as Monday in the wake of cost-cutting deals the U.S. automaker has reached with unions in the United States and Canada.

Chrysler faces an April 30 deadline to reach a deal with creditors and cement an alliance with Italy's Fiat SpA and continue to receive U.S. government emergency support.

The automaker was working "diligently" to complete the Fiat deal and restructure its business by the deadline and maintain government emergency loans, Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said in a memo to staff obtained by Reuters.

Chrysler cleared another hurdle in its reorganization on Monday when Daimler AG reached a deal to divest the nearly 20-percent stake it had held since selling Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management LP in 2007.

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement said it was now more likely Chrysler would not have to go into liquidation following an agreement with the Canadian union that Fiat has concluded is cost-effective.

GM: 60-DAY BANKRUPTCY POSSIBLE

GM's new offer to bondholders would leave them with a 10 percent ownership of the restructured automaker, a sharply lower payout than the nearly 40 percent given to the UAW.

"The offer is unlikely to be accepted by bondholders, who are in effect being asked to sacrifice most of their claims in order to help GM satisfy commitments to the UAW," Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson said.

Henderson, GM's CEO, told reporters that it was possible for GM to complete the bankruptcy process within a 60-day period, but called the success of the bond exchange critical for the automaker to stay out of court.

"The bond exchange needs to be successful for us to avoid bankruptcy," Henderson said. "It's not impossible, but bankruptcy is now more probable."

The new GM that would emerge from the restructuring would be 89 percent-owned by the U.S. government and the UAW, provided workers and officials approve the plans. Current GM stockholders would have 1 percent.

GM shares closed nearly 21 percent higher at $2.04. GM bonds also moved higher.

Still, Standard & Poor's equity analyst Efraim Levy maintained a "sell" rating on GM shares.

"Whether there is a bankruptcy filing or not, we see it as lose-lose for shareholders via dilution from equity issuance or loss of value via a filing," Levy said.

Responding to criticism that its prior turnaround plans had been too slow-moving, GM also outlined deep cuts by the end of 2010: reducing U.S. plants to 34 from 47, slashing U.S. factory jobs by about 21,000 to a total of 40,000, and cutting its dealer network to 3,605 from 6,246 stores.

The Obama administration's autos task force, which has been overseeing GM's planning for the past month, said the steps showed the automaker was making progress toward viability.

"Today's bond exchange filing represents an important step in GM's effort to restructure," the task force, headed by former investment banker Steve Rattner, said in a statement.

GM, which last week took $2 billion of emergency U.S. government loans to bring its total to $15.4 billion so far, was told by the Obama administration in late March it had until June 1 to dig deeper and move faster for continued support.

The automaker said it would phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of next year and could stop production of its Saturn models by the end of 2009. A sale of the Hummer SUV brand is still a "reasonable likelihood," Henderson said.

The steps would leave GM, formerly the world's largest automaker, reliant on four core brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- and a network of international alliances as it looks to sell off its European unit Opel.

Governo alemão apela a ajuda internacional para salvar Opel

O ministro alemão dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, apelou hoje a uma ajuda internacional para salvar as fábricas automóveis da Opel na Europa. A marca alemão poderá declarar falência já em Maio ou Junho se não receber ajuda pública


«E preciso agir a nível internacional e europeu para preservar de forma duradoura os empregos em Rüsselsheim, Kaiserlautern, Bochum e Eisenach», afirmou o ministro ao diário Rheinische Post, falando das principais fábricas da Opel na Alemanha.

«Temos de ver mais longe do que a nossa própria casa. Nenhuma fábrica automóvel é hoje capaz de sobreviver sozinha, na Alemanha, ou em qualquer outro lado», segundo o ministro social-democrata e rival da chanceler Angela Merkel nas próximas eleições em Setembro.

A Opel, filial da construtora norte-americana General Motors, ambas atingidas frontalmente pela crise económica, poderá ter de declarar falência já em Maio ou Junho se não receber uma ajuda pública, afirma por seu lado o diário Bild de hoje.

A Opel, como as concorrentes, é vítima de uma forte queda das vendas de carros, nomeadamente na Europa.

Mas é também directamente afectada pelas enormes dificuldades da casa mãe, a General Motors, que só evita a falência graças às ajudas do governo americano.

Segundo a imprensa alemã, a Opel precisaria de garantias públicas bem mais elevados do que se esperava.

O governo cifra doravante em 3,3 mil milhões de euros as necessidades de liquidez da Opel, segundo a revista Spiegel e o diário Bild.

pedrom Escreveu:

joao5 Escreveu:

pedrom Escreveu:Enfim temos um problema no mundo empresarial: existem empresas que só aguentam quando a economia cresce pois tem estruturas de custos muito pesadas e não abdicam desses custos (superfulos) por nada deste mundo.
(...)
O mais engraçado (triste) são os despedimentos feitos por essas empresas depois de serem ajudadas.....

Pois se têm estruturas de custos pesadas e os custos com pessoal são os que mais pesam, qual é a alternativa?

A alternativa???? Acabar com as altas vidas de administradores, gerentes, sócios, acabar com iates, aviões e avionetas......

Quando eu falo em não despedir pessoal estou a referir-me a pessoas que ganham 500 e tal euros!!!!

joao5 Escreveu:

pedrom Escreveu:Enfim temos um problema no mundo empresarial: existem empresas que só aguentam quando a economia cresce pois tem estruturas de custos muito pesadas e não abdicam desses custos (superfulos) por nada deste mundo.
(...)
O mais engraçado (triste) são os despedimentos feitos por essas empresas depois de serem ajudadas.....

Pois se têm estruturas de custos pesadas e os custos com pessoal são os que mais pesam, qual é a alternativa?

pedrom Escreveu:Enfim temos um problema no mundo empresarial: existem empresas que só aguentam quando a economia cresce pois tem estruturas de custos muito pesadas e não abdicam desses custos (superfulos) por nada deste mundo.
(...)
O mais engraçado (triste) são os despedimentos feitos por essas empresas depois de serem ajudadas.....

Ulisses Pereira Escreveu:Na verdade, em muitas outras crises, o segredo esteve na forma como as empresas que sobreviveram se tornaram mais forte com o desaparecimento de outras empresas. (desculpando-me o abuso da comparação, o Caldeirão é até um curioso exemplo disso)

Se o capitalismo não está preparado para aceitar as crises e as falências, então isto não é verdadeiramente o capitalismo.

Um abraço,
Ulisses

Ulisses Pereira Escreveu:Na verdade, em muitas outras crises, o segredo esteve na forma como as empresas que sobreviveram se tornaram mais forte com o desaparecimento de outras empresas. (desculpando-me o abuso da comparação, o Caldeirão é até um curioso exemplo disso)

Se o capitalismo não está preparado para aceitar as crises e as falências, então isto não é verdadeiramente o capitalismo.
Um abraço,
Ulisses

DuarteTB Escreveu:Esta crise, esta como que quase a fazer-nos voltar á estaca zero. Muitas vão á falencia e desaparecem, mas não quer dizer que se deixem de fabricar esses bens.

Irão pois surgir novas empresas, novos donos,novos investidores. E irão criar novas marcas de carros, barcos etc.

Se isto vai demorar muito tempo? provavelmente...
Se vamos passar mal? Se empregos serão perdidos, familias ficarão em condições precárias? Certamente...

No entanto não durará pra sempre. Se não recuperar nesta geração será na proxima. Porque por mais que se diga que a juventude já não é o que era, apesar de ser meio verdade, também é verdade que existem inumeros jovens empreendedores e com vontade de andar pra frente.

Esta minha visão é demasiado desprovida de sentido?

Açor3 Escreveu:Falências da GM e Chrysler custariam cerca de 87 mil milhões aos contribuintes


18/02/2009


A Chrysler e a General Motors (GM), que pediram ao governo norte-americano uma ajuda adicional de 21,6 mil milhões de dólares (17,07 mil milhões de euros), defendem que deixar as duas empresas entrar em falência custará cinco vezes mais aos contribuintes.

As duas fabricantes automóveis afirmaram que os custos de reestruturação que o governo teria de suportar, caso a GM e a Chrysler pedissem protecção ao abrigo do já conhecido Capitulo 11 da Lei da Falência, atingiriam cerca de 110 mil milhões de dólares (86,97 mil milhões de euros) para os contribuintes norte-americanos, de acordo com as estimativas avançadas pela Bloomberg.

A falência “criaria um stress insuportável não só para os nossos fornecedores, como para os fornecedores de outros fabricantes automóveis”, afirmou o presidente executivo da Chrysler, Bob Nardelli numa entrevista telefónica, de acordo com a agência noticiosa norte-americana.

“Teria um efeito terrível em toda a indústria automóvel”, acrescentou o responsável.

A General Motors entregou, ontem, a Tim Geithner, secretário do Tesouro dos EUA, um pedido de mais 16,6 mil milhões de dólares em ajuda, afirmando que necessita, pelo menos, de parte deste montante para sobreviver, isto numa altura em que prepara encerramentos de fábricas e o corte de 47 mil postos de trabalho a nível global.




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