Filed under: Trends, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Earnings/Financials
Could GM be considering selling Holden?
According to
Graeme Maxton of Autopolis, General Motors may consider selling off its Australian Holden brand.The reason, interestingly, is Holden's profitability. Maxton points out that GM is desperate to make money to pay off its enormous--and fixed-- liabilities. It has already sold its Subaru stake and most of its Suzuki shares, and has cut its investment in Isuzu. Recently, the world's largest automaker has also sold its property financial branch. Unfortunately, Maxton asserts, this puts the company in 'death spiral' where less people will be willing to purchase its products and assets, deepening its debts. GM would then have to possibly offer Holden for funding.
"The question for Holden is who would buy it," he said. "There are actually not many companies except maybe a Chinese maker who would buy it right now."
A detailed discussion can be found at the link. Take a look and sound off in Comments.
[Source: The Weekend Australian]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Justin 1:51PM (3/26/2006)
Oh good, the one division that was actually making interested RWD cars. GM is run by lemmings.
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Michael Karesh 1:54PM (3/26/2006)
Very unlikely. Holden is far too integrated into GM's other operations. In the end they'd only be selling the Holden name, which could not be worth terribly much to others, while it would deprive GM of the Australian market. It's not a large market, but by the same token the company couldn't be worth much to others.
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phil 2:33PM (3/26/2006)
How would they continue to make that pathetic excuse for a GTO?
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whofan 2:44PM (3/26/2006)
They should sell Saturn but keep the Sky and slap a bow tie on it.
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Sly 3:05PM (3/26/2006)
I never like when auto brands change ownership. It is very disturbing in my opinion.
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Bobkal 3:09PM (3/26/2006)
Whether this is true or not, GM needs some serious restructuring at the executive level. I,like most Americans would like to see Gm Succeed, but I do not believe that they can do so until they get rid of the incompetent and decidedly un-passionate executives who are running this once-great company into the ground.
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Chris 3:47PM (3/26/2006)
The one that's a lot faster and safer than the old "classic" GTO phil? Plus it was Americans who beat it to death with an ugly stick, Holden's car actually looks quite good.
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Howard Kerr 4:11PM (3/26/2006)
This is just my opinion, but wouldn't selling Holden be about as useless (for generating cash) as trying to sell Buick or Chevrolet? Yes, Holden has great manufacturing and engineering staffs, with profitable factories, but some of that profit is predicated on selling cars designed by other parts of GM. Who would want to buy them? Australia is a very small market, and it would make more sense to wait for them to just die and then buy the factories.
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JGN 6:41PM (3/26/2006)
I am surprised that there aren't a few Australian companies interested in owning Holden.
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Brian W 7:43PM (3/26/2006)
Australia will be all imports in 5-10 years unless the government steps in to stop it.
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whofan 7:52PM (3/26/2006)
#11
So will the USA.
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shane 9:08PM (3/26/2006)
# 12 If anyone who knows the auto industry should realize that most of the so called imports are manufactured in th great old USA, toyota, hondas, hyundia, subarus, all of these companies manufacture. If you want to save the fords, chryslers, and gm's you have to deal with the UAW. The union has ruined the competiveness in the US auto industy.
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Rene Curry 9:14PM (3/26/2006)
They probably want to get out early before the flood of cheap Asian exports hit. The problem is Holden is so intergrated into GM, it would be a difficult sell.
Myself, I sure like the Holden vehicle line.
I thought the Monaro/GTO would be a winner in the USA. But I was wrong, and everyone that says bring over some more may also be wrong.
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Bob Miller 9:24PM (3/26/2006)
Of course you all realize that this all pure speculation by this analyst, right? GM hasn't come out and said anything publicly and no new board members have said or suggested anything. This is the first time I've heard this, and it doesn't surprise me that someone from Australia, who is very far removed from the situation in Detroit, would be the only analyst speculating that this would even be a possible scenario.
All I can say is that I hope GM doesn't get rid of Holden. From what I understand, they're the division in charge of the next generation of affordable (not Cadillacs) rear wheel drive cars. If that program gets cancelled (i.e., Camaro), then I'll forget about GM, and very quickly.
I don't know, Australian media is probably similar to ours - always present the worst case scenario to sell magazines and newspapers. More than likely GM isn't considering this.
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Aki 10:01PM (3/26/2006)
Sure GM hasn't officially said anything about this, but knowing their shortsighted business decisions in the past it wouldn't surprise me.
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mark 9:47PM (3/27/2006)
Im very interested in all the comments regards Holden.As mentioned Holden are held in high regard around the world for engineering excellence and was the forerunner for the Zeta program until Lutz got his axe out.Also Holden presented a good package to Asia with the HFV6 engine ( orginally St Katherine ).
I suppose though my experiences actually working within Holden both Engine and Vehicle Assembly I am surprised to hear GM might sell.Reasons :
Limited Domestic sales ; small export sales ; location ; aussie dollar too strong ; unions control ; Asia imports cheaper ; Asia engines are smaller = cheap on petrol.
Even Holdens sisters Daewoo are going under a rebadge was Kalos now Barina,was Lacetti now Viva.
I don't think there would be a buyer.The chinese,Japanese,Malaysian would better be buying cash strpped Mitsubishi in South Australia.
The only way out is to sell property, restructure , close unprofitable plants,re affirm their fleet and import CKD's.
The Monaro isn't that bad, Lutz had to stop at importation of 18,000 otherwise the unions in US threatend to strike.
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avinash machado 5:55AM (3/28/2006)
Maybe toyota would buy it.
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John M 8:20PM (3/28/2006)
Holden has a very good group of talented engineers who are renowned for their cost effective and efficient work. Perhaps GM could provide outsourced automotive engineering services? Given the competitive nature of the auto industry there are probably a number of organisations that would happily pay to learn techniques in reducing R&D costs.
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mark 1:21AM (3/30/2006)
News is Geely are possibly tieing up with Proton,whom own Lotus.Lotus being a Service provider of designs/engineering.Proton have tied up with Mitsubishi again.This allows Mitsubishi to export thier 380 to Asia,Whilst Proton export their Gen2/Savvy to Oz.
Both seriously needing to export to produce returns.
Possibly Geely could buy Holden ( they are loaded ) or FAW or SAIC.This will allow them greater access to Australian sales,reduced tarriff,government incentives,Re Badging and shared enginuity etc...
Yet could GM afford to lose their "Lion's" share ( sic ) to another Asian Giant? Holden export the Lumina ( Chev badged ) to China.
As Toyota and a korean Car giant have just signed a deal to Build in Cech Republic.GM & FORD are concerned , very concerned.
I feel Taiwan is at the centre of the Manufacturing revolution.What happens there will affect the US,UK,OZ,and Asia.If Korea comes to blows with China - Manufacturing will hit another revolution like in WW2.
This will be a blessing for GM and ford.
The picture is bigger than Ben Hur and as puzzled as the Davinci code.
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GM 6:52AM (3/30/2006)
Toyota is the best selling brand in Australia with a market share of about 24% against Holdens 17%.. Holden only dominates the large sedan (V6) segment, the next generation ToyotaV6 based on the US Camry V6 will be a strong challenge for the Holdens dominance of this segment.
http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/FB518FFF551FEFB5CA25710F002F930F
Holdens sales pitch has been to identify as being a Aussie car. The reality is Holden is owned by an American company and majority of the Holden model line up are re-badged Korean made GM Daewoos. With a massive recall of recently manufactured cars the picture is not that rosy for Holden http://www.nextcar.com.au/n.holden.2006.recall.06mar.html
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