Ford

By Abid Ali in Business on February 6th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Does it matter how low the president of Toyota bows down? Apparently - Akio Toyoda didn't show enough contrition because he wasn't bowing deep enough. 

By Abid Ali in Business on September 23rd, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

It’s a cliché from the best and worst of Hollywood movies. But it appears to be all the rage in investment circles. The next big idea: buying into China’s automakers.

Goldman Sachs – which bet against mortgage-backed securities and won – has pledged to invest $334 million in Geely Automobile Holdings. Geely’s parent company Geely Group Holdings, China’s 10th biggest car maker, is certainly ambitious. It wants to raise money to double production and acquire new technology with the possible $2 billion purchase of Ford’s Volvo business.

It already has a stake in Manganese Bronze Holdings – the British company that makes the world famous black London taxi. Looking at Geely’s current line up – Free Cruiser, Geely Kingkong, Vision and Panda -- it certainly won’t have Western consumers salivating. Although it has plans to flood the world with cars designed to meet local demands.

By Abid Ali in Business on May 19th, 2009

Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, evidently thinks he knows something that the rest of the automotive world has yet to work out. How to make a auto merger work.

In his pursuit to create the world’s second-largest car maker Fiat will gobble up Chrysler as well as taking on General Motor’s European and Latin American assets including the Opel, Saab and Vauxhall brands.

But it is worth looking at the wreckage from previous high-profile mergers.

BMW gave up on Rover selling it for just $14, while it also offloaded Land Rover and Jaguar for a more impressive $3 billion to Ford.

Ford in turn cut their losses and offloaded Land Rover and Jaguar to India’s Tata for $2.3 billion. Ford also failed to make Austin Martin a viable concern and is currently courting bids to relieve itself of Volvo.

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