More Stories
PSA keeps margin target as first half risesEurope's second-biggest carmarker PSA/Peugeot-Citroen on Wednesday maintained its operating profit margin target for 2008 as first-half earnings rose more than expected on the back of cost cuts. The company repeated it expected a slowdown in western European markets of around 4 percent this year with a more difficult second half. [REG] July 23 09:00 CET |
GM Europe redefines future Saab models
General Motors Europe wants future Saab models to be more compact than originally planned. Unlike earlier plans to use GM's global upper-medium Ypsilon-2 architecture for the next generation of the Saab 9-3, GM Europe decided last March to use the more compact lower-medium Delta architecture. [REG] July 23 15:39 CET
VW second quarter profit beats expectationsSecond-quarter operating profit at Volkswagen rose 22 percent to 2.12 billion euros ($3.38 billion) thanks to cost savings and rising vehicle sales,. [REG] July 23 11:00 CET | UPDATED: 07/23/08 11:42 CET |
Faurecia sees promise in U.S. marketFrench supplier Faurecia sees major opportunities in North America as consumers shift from large trucks and SUVs to small and medium-sized cars. "We are forecasting strong growth and a return to profitability in North America," CEO Yann Delabriere told financial analysts and journalists. [REG] July 23 10:20 CET |
Ferrari, Maserati rise in 2nd qtrJudging by the first-half results just reported by Ferrari and Maserati, the credit crunch, declining stock markets and rising oil prices aren't having much of an impact on buyers of sports cars. The two Fiat subsidiaries reported record first-half results Wednesday. [REG] July 23 14:24 CET |
Toyota sales up 2.2%, but may lower 2008 target
Toyota has so far beat the global slump with a sales increase of 2.2 percent to 4,817,941 vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2008. But the world's biggest automaker may still end up cutting its full-year target. Toyota will trim its full-year goal to around 9.5 million vehicles, from an earlier forecast of 9.85 million, according to Japan's Nikkei business daily. [REG] July 23 13:45 CET
Report: Tata open to Fiat selling NanoIndian carmaker Tata Motors is open to Italy's Fiat helping to sell the ultra-cheap Nano model overseas, Chairman Ratan Tata said on Tuesday. Tata, India's third-biggest carmaker, plans to launch the Nano later this year. [REG] July 23 10:00 CET |
Conti board set to consider Schaeffler bidThe supervisory board of Continental will discuss on Wednesday an unsolicited 11.3 billion-euro ($18.0 billion) bid from bearings maker Schaeffler, in a meeting that could decide the fate of CEO Manfred Wennemer. Wennemer has vehemently opposed the advances of Schaeffler. [REG] July 23 11:00 CET |
Conti CEO to present strategy against Schaeffler bidContinental's CEO Manfred Wennemer will today present to the company's supervisory board strategies to fend off an impending takeover by family-owned Schaeffler Group, including searching for a white knight bidder. [REG] July 23 09:19 CET |
Renault plans production cuts in Douai, France
Renault has decided to cut production at its factory in Douai, northern France, in response to the worsening European sales outlook. The French carmaker said last week it would also shut a factory in Sandouville, France, for seven days in September on top of a four-week closure in August. [REG] July 22 14:57 CET | UPDATED: 07/22/08 15:25 CET
German regulator may approve Schaeffler's bid for Conti
Germany's financial-markets watchdog BaFin will not extend its assessment of Schaeffler Group's bid for Continental beyond its usual 10-day period, paving the way for regulatory approval of the offer in the first week of August, Financial Times Deutschland reported. [REG] July 22 09:11 CET
Continental chairman does not want takeover fight
The chairman of Continental AG would prefer to avoid a damaging battle if a takeover of the German automotive supplier seems inevitable, a German magazine quoted him as saying. "What we need is reason, not a fight at any price," Hubertus von Gruenberg told Manager Magazin in portions of an interview released a day before a supervisory board meeting on Wednesday to discuss an unsolicited bid from the rival Schaeffler group. [REG] July 22 15:16 CET
GM's Demant: Insignia set to revive segmentThe Opel/ Vauxhall Insignia will breathe new life into the upper-medium segment, the head of Opel predicted. Hans Demant, managing director of Opel, said the Insignia's technical features, as well as its price, would make the Insignia attractive to customers. [REG] July 22 10:29 CET |
Autoliv to cut 3,000 jobs, lowers forecast
Air bag and seat belt maker Autoliv cut its full-year outlook on Tuesday and said it would shed as many as 3,000 jobs in the face of weak auto markets and soaring raw material costs. Shares in Autoliv, which reported second-quarter earnings just below expectations, extended an early slide as investors digested the news and fell 12.3 percent. [REG] July 22 17:15 CET
Faurecia sticks to target as first half edges upFrench car parts maker Faurecia maintained its target of reaching an operating margin of above 3 percent by 2010 after its first-half margin edged up to 1.4 percent from 1 percent, boosting its shares. The stock rose nearly 6 percent to 24.80 euros, after losing almost 50 percent of its value this year. [REG] July 22 11:00 CET |
Peugeot to take on 400 staff at Sochaux sitePeugeot will take on 400 permanent staff at its Sochaux factory between now and the end of the year, La Tribune reported, without naming its source. The company will take on the staff to keep up with production of its model 308 vehicles, as well as two new cars in the next year, the paper reported. [REG] July 22 09:16 CET |
Report: Ford to shift focus to small cars
Ford Motor is about to alter its focus drastically and build more small cars, the New York Times reported today, citing people familiar with the plans. Ford will make the announcement on Thursday, when it releases quarterly results, the newspaper said. The story echoes similar reports that began circulating in the media this past weekend. [REG] July 22 07:00 CET
Continental's management united against Schaeffler bidTop management at German car parts supplier Continental AG is united against an unsolicited 11.5 billion euro ($18.25 billion) bid by rival Schaeffler group ahead of a critical supervisory board meeting on Wednesday, a senior executive said. "We stand together as management on this," Karl-Thomas Neumann told Reuters on Monday, dismissing as "nonsense" a newspaper report that he was poised to replace CEO Manfred Wennemer [REG] July 21 17:45 CET |
GME wants to sell 200,000 Insignias in 2009General Motors Europe hopes to sell more than 200,000 units of its new Opel/Vauxhall Insignia sedan in 2009, its first full year of sales. “That is substantially more than the 140,000 Opel/Vauxhall Vectras, the company hopes to sell this year,” said Alain Visser, GM Europe's chief marketing officer. [REG] July 21 16:07 CET |
Continental denies possible CEO resignationGerman car parts supplier Continental denied Chief Executive Manfred Wennemer was prepared to resign from his post should the supervisory board fail to reach an agreement on an unsolicited bid from the Schaeffler group. A spokesman for Continental on Monday also dismissed a media report that management board member Karl-Thomas Neumann was poised to replace Wennemer as head of the world's fourth largest automotive supplier. [REG] July 21 09:45 CET |
Bankers: Schaeffler secures loan for Conti bid
German ball bearings manufacturer Schaeffler Group has secured a multibillion syndicated loan backing its hostile 11.5 billion euro ($18.27 billion) bid for German car parts giant Continental, banking sources said on Monday. The banks leading the fully underwritten loan are mandated lead arrangers Commerzbank, Dresdner, HVB, LBBW, Royal Bank of Scotland, which is acting as co-ordinator, and UBS, bankers close to the deal said. [REG] July 21 15:00 CET
Volkswagen Group June unit sales up 2.4%VW said unit sales in June for the whole group rose 2.4 percent to 573,000 compared with the same month last year. It said the 2.4 percent growth outperformed a 5.1 percent decline in the overall market in June. [REG] July 21 12:00 CET |
GM: now comes the hard partBy pledging to cut $10 billion in costs, General Motors has convinced investors and creditors that the immediate risk of bankruptcy has faded. After touching 54-year lows, GM shares have rallied, and the cost to insure the top U.S. automaker's debt against default has eased. Now comes the hard part: convincing millions of U.S. consumers to take another look at its more fuel-efficient passenger cars as the company attempts to break its reliance on the fast-sinking market for trucks and SUVs. [REG] July 21 13:00 CET |
Germans in U.S. eye VW workFrom atop Lookout Mountain here, you can see seven states. From Volkswagen AG's vantage point, the view is of a full-fledged European supplier community ripe for more business. Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental AG, Benteler AG, ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Brose Group are just a few of the traditional VW suppliers with manufacturing operations within a day's drive of VW's newly announced factory site in Chattanooga. [REG] July 21 06:01 CET |
