With confirmation Saturn is up for sale coming from General Motors earlier this month, a number of potential investors and buyers have come out of the woodwork recently and confirmed interest in the struggling brand. Two main groups include investment firm Telesto Ventures and Roger Penske’s dealer conglomerate Penske Automotive Group.

Even Renault-Nissan and auto parts supplier Magna International has been rumored to be eyeing a possible Saturn purchase, and while the field of potential suitors is varied there remains one common factor. Any new owner of Saturn will need to source new models to sell under the brand as GM will be cutting all ties with the struggling brand, including building cars for it.

This provides rival companies, especially those not already operating in the U.S., with a lucrative opportunity to utilize Saturn’s network of roughly 380 dealerships. According to The Detroit News, Mitsubishi is the latest carmaker to be interested in supplying vehicles for Saturn once it’s sold.

This would be the latest attempt by Mitsubishi to boost its production and presence in North America. Previously it was in talks with Chrysler over a deal to supply the American carmaker with several different models, including an electric minicar.

Mitsubishi has a single American production plant, located in Normal, Illinois, which currently produces the Galant sedan but poor sales has plant officials considering building other models.

General Motors received an additional $4 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury late on Friday, while also reaching a cost-cutting agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union ahead of a rumored Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing expected next week.

This is in addition to the $19.4 billion already loaned to GM by the government since the start of the year, yet the struggling carmaker predicts the total amount loaned to increased to $27 billion after the June 1 restructuring deadline.

On top of that, GM has also reached tentative agreements with unions in Canada and the U.S., which will see hourly wage rates reduced and retiree healthcare trust funds paid with stock rather than cash.

Despite the billions in loans and union concessions, GM is still expected to enter bankruptcy. One major sticking point, however, is the money owed to bondholders. According to Automotive News, GM said it will be forced into bankruptcy if it fails to get bondholders to agree to forgive some $24 billion in debts - roughly 90% of the money they are owed.

President Obama’s administration had offered bondholders a 10% stake in a restructured GM but this was rejected. A spokesman for a committee representing GM bondholders said institutional investors solidly oppose that offer as insufficient.

....We hear a lot from regulators about the increased choice these new regulations will bring, but these choices seem to be answers to questions no consumer is asking. The few vehicles available today that meet these standards don't sell in large quantities because of their small size, poor performance, and high prices. Sales of the Toyota Prius and other hybrids briefly shot up when gas cost $4.00 a gallon, but as soon as gas prices started dropping, so did hybrid sales. Prius sales fell so sharply (even in relation to a market in overall decline) that Toyota last year halted construction of a Prius factory it was building in Mississippi. Today, the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. so far this year are the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks. Nobody is stopping buyers of these vehicles from purchasing Priuses instead.

Will it Work?

The Obama administration claims the new measures will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil over seven years. But that claim assumes new-car buying habits continue unabated and that people will want to buy expensive, tiny cars. If people instead elect to purchase bigger, cheaper used vehicles, there will be no reduction in consumption; those used vehicles are the same "guzzlers" we're driving today. The fuel economy gains we might have seen with reasonable mileage targets for new vehicles won't be realized if fewer new vehicles are sold. Worse, the auto industry will continue to shrink because of the decrease in new-vehicle sales.....

A General Motors Corp. (GM-N1.22-0.22-15.25%) bankruptcy filing seemed inevitable after a rebellion by its bondholders forced it to withdraw on Wednesday a plan to swap bond debt for company stock.

GM has until Monday to complete a U.S. government-ordered restructuring that includes debt reduction, labour cost cuts and plant closures. But a Chapter 11 reorganization is likely after the company said its offer to exchange $27-billion (U.S.) in unsecured debt for 10 per cent of the company's stock had failed.

GM has received $19.4-billion in federal loans. The Monday deadline was set by the government and includes debt reduction, labour cost cuts and plant closures.

The auto maker said its board will meet to decide its next step.

“The principal amount of notes tendered was substantially less than the amount required by GM to satisfy the debt reduction requirement under its loan agreements with the U.S. Department of the Treasury,” GM said in a statement issued Wednesday.

The Obama administration has said it would only provide more funds if 90 per cent of the bondholders, as well as unionized workers, agreed to concessions that substantially reduced GM's costs.

GM also said it cancelled meetings set for Wednesday with holders of notes that were not sold in U.S. dollars. The statement said the meetings were to discuss amendments to the debt-for-equity offers, but it did not specify what the amendments were.

There was a small hope Tuesday that GM could avoid a bankruptcy filing when the United Auto Workers union disclosed that it would take a 20 per cent stake in GM — down from the original plan of 39 per cent. That seemingly freed 19 per cent of the Detroit-based company's shares to sweeten the pot for its recalcitrant bondholders.

But because the bondholder deal did not go through, the equity freed by the UAW deal now apparently will go to the U.S. government, which may have to commit billions more for GM's restructuring in court.


“ They may not do much better, but they can't do any worse ”


The U.S. government's stake in the company originally was to be 50 per cent, according to GM's regulatory filings. But it now could be as high as 69 per cent. The Canadian government also could get equity for up to $8-billion in aid for the auto maker.

Such an arrangement would leave bondholders back where they started — and a Chapter 11 filing all but certain. The deadline for GM's bondholders to tender their debt was midnight Tuesday.

Meanwhile, crosstown rival Chrysler LLC heads to court Wednesday to ask a bankruptcy judge for permission to sell the bulk of its assets to a group headed by Italy's Fiat Group SpA in hopes of saving itself from liquidation. Attorneys for Chrysler maintain that the Fiat deal is the company's only hope to avoid being sold piece by piece, but car dealers, bondholders, former employees and others are protesting what they see as the government speeding Chrysler through the bankruptcy process without regard for certain creditors.

Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection April 30, after the government ended talks with a group of holdout bondholders.

Auto makers worldwide are struggling as the global recession has reduced demand for new vehicles. But GM and Chrysler have been particularly hobbled by promises to cover the health and pension costs of tens of thousands of unionized retirees — along with recent record-high gasoline prices that reduced demand for their low-mileage trucks and SUVs.

The UAW disclosed Tuesday it agreed to take a much smaller 17.5 per cent stake in GM, plus a warrant for an added 2.5 per cent stake to partially fund the $20-billion that GM must put into a trust that will start paying retiree health care costs next year.

In exchange for agreeing to a lower equity ownership stake, GM promised the union $6.5-billion of preferred shares that pay 9 per cent interest, plus a $2.5-billion note. The union, facing the possibility that it may not be able to quickly sell GM shares to fund its trust, preferred the certainty of the $585-million annual dividend that accompanies the preferred shares.

The remaining $10-billion will come from health care trust funds that GM already has set up. The trust will get a seat on GM's board as well, although it will have to vote at the direction of GM's other independent directors. The concession deal, on which roughly 61,000 workers will vote by Thursday, also froze wages and cut retiree health care benefits, performance bonuses and cost-of-living raises.

When GM announced its debt exchange last month, the company offered bondholders 225 shares of common stock for every $1,000 in debt — or a 10 per cent stake in the restructured company. In addition to the UAW's share, the federal government was to take 50 per cent for exchanging a combined $20-billion of their debt to equity. Current stockholders would end up owning just 1 per cent of the company.

A committee representing GM's biggest bondholders — mostly big banks and other institutional investors — has opposed the debt-for-equity swap from the start.

U.S. government to give GM another $30b
Posted By Drew Johnson On May28 @ 4:31 pm

Confirming reports from earlier this month, the United States government will give General Motors another $30 billion. The latest cash infusion is on top of the $19.4 billion already given to the ailing Detroit automaker over the past few months. GM will likely file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy next week.

According to Automotive News, General Motors will only be required to pay back $8 billion of the $30 billion loan. The difference will be made up by equity in the new GM.
The U.S. government will likely forgive the $19.4 billion already loaned to the Michigan automaker.
The government’s $49.4 billion investment in GM will likely net a 72.5 percent stake in the new company – a 1 percent larger share than originally predicted. However, that stake could be reduced to 55 percent, depending on options exercised by the UAW.
GM’s bondholders recently agreed to a new debt-for-equity swap that could see up to 25 percent of the new GM owned by lenders. Holders of $27 billion of GM debt will initially be given a 10 percent cut of the new company, with warrants to buy an additional 15 percent.

Chrysler has taken the lid off a $448 million plan, submitted to the Energy department, to produce electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The plan includes $83 million for a new research and production facility in Michigan.

Chrysler, and that company's stakeholders, would pony up half of the money listed in the proposal. If approved, the U.S. Department of Energy would pay the remaining $224 million in matching funds.

The manufacturing plant is seen as a key factor in the proposal, as it could create a significant number of jobs over the next year. If constructed, the facility would be responsible for the production of 20,000 cars and trucks annually.

Chrysler product development exec Frank Klegon wrote positively of the plan, saying, "This plan will accelerate our efforts to develop and manufacture electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which will reduce the amount of time it will take to get these vehicles on the road."

However, the plan does dive into a grey area, proposing $365 million for a set of less than 400 demonstration vehicles. These vehicles, which could include plug-in hybrid and electric versions of the Chrysler Town & Country, and a Dodge Ram 1500 hybrid, would be doled out to certain high-ranking customers and stakeholders. What is unclear is the continued development of their ENVI line of all-electric concept vehicles. These included the all-electric T&C, as well as EV models of the Chrysler 200C, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Patriot, and the Dodge Circuit.

Chrysler, in bankrupcy for nearly a month, is working on a deal to sell off assets to Fiat, the United Auto Workers, and both the American and Canadian governments. A judge is set to rule on those sales this week.

However, the plan does dive into a grey area, proposing $365 million for a set of less than 400 demonstration vehicles. These vehicles, which could include plug-in hybrid and electric versions of the Chrysler Town & Country, and a Dodge Ram 1500 hybrid, would be doled out to certain high-ranking customers and stakeholders.