General Motors (GM) has surpassed Toyota and become the world leader in sales of cars in the first half because of the devastating earthquake in Japan in March. GM sales rose 8.9 percent to 4.536 million units for the first six months of the year. The second position is for a Volkswagen with 4.13 million units, while Toyota fell to third place with 3.71 million units sold, including their luxury brand Lexus, Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors. The GM sales in the U.S. have increased 669,065 units in the second quarter, according to Autodata Corp. The best-selling vehicle for them is Chevrolet Cruze. Toyota expects production to be completely normal in September. In early August the company reported its first loss of 2 years, although lower than expected. In late June, Moody’s lowered the credit rating of Japanese auto giant because of the strong yen and expensive raw materials. Takeshi Miao, an analyst at consulting firm Carnorama in Tokyo, said that even the production back to normal by September, the recovery in sales of Toyota will take several more months.

Enhanced by the improving the economy and the labor market, car sales in the U.S. increased by 16.9% yoy in March. The second-largest U.S. carmaker Ford is ahead of sales in the U.S. its larger rival General Motors for the second time in its history. The reported by Ford is growth of 19% yoy to 212,295 new cars. The sales of General Motors at the same time increased 10% to 206,621 cars. General Motors discontinued in March largest discounts offered in early 2011, which puts pressure on its sales for the month. The carmakers Chrysler, Honda and Hyundai are headed for growth, while Nissan, Hyundai and Kia recorded its largest monthly sales since the market in the U.S. Chrysler sold 121,730 cars and vans March, making an increase of 31% compared to last March. Moreover realized by Chrysler sales are the biggest for the company over the past three years. Nissan ranks shortly after Chrysler with 121,141 new vehicles sold, due to the proposed company considerable discounts. Toyota suffers drop in sales of 6% annually in March and became the only major manufacturer with a fall because of weak sales of light trucks. Overall, auto companies have sold 1,246,623 cars and light trucks in the country in March. If the data is aligned on an annual basis, sales amounted to 13.1 million vehicles. March is the sixth month in the U.S. with annual sales exceeding 12 million, although they fall slightly compared to the February level since 13.4 million.
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The shares of General Motors, which went bankrupt last year after more than a century of stock market in New York rose over 9% after the company returned to the stock exchange to conduct an initial public offering for $ 20 billion. Shares of GM rose 9.1 percent to 35.99 dollars in cash during the first half hour after opening the stock exchange on Thursday. The car producer company owners, including the state’s finance ministry, sold 15.8 billion ordinary shares at a price of 33 dollars per share in the largest IPO in U.S. history. Along with the preference shares sold for 4.35 billion dollars and options for resale company expects to raise 23.1 billion dollars – more than the record for world stock markets 22.1 billion generated in the IPO-it China’s Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. The GM’s supply was made 16 months after the resurrection of the company. GM owes the American taxpayers 49.5 billion dollars. The company realized good financial strategy for increasing the incomes and will invest the profits in innovating the factories and decrease the price of production.
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The Initial public offering (IPO) of General Motors Co. may grow to 15.8 billion dollars, after state’s finance ministry and the union pension fund for workers in the automotive sector United Auto Workers increased the number of shares to sell. The IPO may grow by 31% to 478 million shares, reported sources close to the company of Bloomberg, anonymity. For resale the IPO may reach 550 million, or 18.2 billion dollars. Detroit-based carmaker yesterday increased its offer range up to 32-33 dollars per share by 26-29 dollars earlier. The sale, scheduled for today will help the company to return part of the loan of 49.5 billion dollars, which GM received from the federal government to save from bankruptcy in 2009, the U.S. Treasury, which will be a loss sale, could win only if the company’s shares rise by 60%. The Finance Ministry is confident that there is demand and the shares will be redeemed, “says Michael Yoshikami, who manages $ 1 billion in CMNet Advisors. “There is sense in what they do because they are talking about prices that are much higher than the level at which implies that there will be demand”. The IPO will be the second largest in U.S. history after the sale of Visa Inc. for 19.7 billion dollars in March 2008 Taking into account the increase in preference shares to $ 4 billion from $ 3 billion, GM can raise 22.2 billion dollars.
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The biggest U.S. carmaker General Motors account in the first quarter of 2009 net profit of 865 million dollars, said. This is the first positive result for the company since 2007. The reason for the good results of the automobile, which in July last year out of bankruptcy procedure, is the result of higher sales and lower reductions offered cars. Operating profit of the company until the crisis was the leader in sales of cars worldwide is 1.2 billions US dollars. For the first three months of 2009 the company reported a loss of $ 6 billion and revenues of 22.4 billion US dollars. The company indicated that its cars produced worldwide were 2.1 million units to 1.3 million a year ago. The company’s market share remained stable at 11.2%. In the words of Chief Financial director Chris Lidel, current indicators are a good prerequisite towards the return of GM’s stock. The company realized high loses last years and was almost in front of bankruptcy, but the financial injection from the US government recovered the company.
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Ford Motor Co. seeks to regain his leadership position on the sports cars in the U.S. economy by developing a new version of the Mustang, communicate their marketing strategy with vehicle manufacturers, cited by agency Reuters. The model 2011 will be released this year, the agency stated. The new Mustang has a 3.7-liter engine will have output of 305 horsepower and will spend about 8 liters per 100 kilometers. With these basic parameters the new model is superior rival in 2010 Camaro General Motors, which is 9 months already the market leader in sports cars. Ford announced in February that they had already taken nearly 11 000 orders for the new model, which is three times more than the previous model, marketed by the company. Overall, Ford’s sales exceeded those of GM last February, which is the first time since 1998.
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General Motors to postpone finalizing the deal to sell the Opel consortium between Magna International and Russian Sberbank, reported in its online blog delegation of leading U.S. automaker for negotiating the sale, John Smith. According to him, Opel deal could not be finalized until the board of directors did not discuss it again at its meeting on 3rd of November. Ten days ago from General Motors announced that the company intends to finalize the deal by the end of last week. “Board of Directors will consider the letter from the Minister of Economy, Germany Gutenberg changes in the proposal of Magna and Sberbank of 9 September,” says Smith. It comes to responding to the Government of Germany on an official request by General Motors, the choice of the Magna is not political. Representatives of European countries in which Opel has assets subjected to sharp criticism of Berlin’s preference to sell the Opel of Magna and Sberbank. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has expressed doubts last week promised state aid to the new majority owners of Opel from the government of Angela Merkel. In a letter to Germany’s economy minister Karl-Theodor zu Gutenberg Euro-Commissar writes that “must be given the opportunity to review the current owners of the election results of the offer in writing stating categorically the German government of that state aid will be granted, regardless of the chosen investor or a restructuring plan.
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The U.S. carmaker General Motors is working on a “plan B” on the future of Opel and a willingness to continue to manage its European division, says the Wall Street Journal. Despite the fact that the company is working on finalizing the deal with Canadian-Russian consortium Magna and Sberbank, problems associated with EU regulations may prevent the deal. Comes to aid of 4.5 billion, which German government grant to help Opel, a step which Community directives prohibited. At the end of last week, European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes sent a letter to the Minister of Economy of Germany Karl-Theodor Gyutenberg in which it was stated that GM should have the opportunity to again review process associated with the sale of Opel. We recall that in September, GM decided to sell Magna 55 percent of Opel, as stocks remaining 35%, while the other 10 remain in the hands of employees.
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Sales of new cars and light trucks in the U.S. in September fell sharply after the “cache for old vehicles” suspend in August. On an annual basis ironed sales fell to 9.22 million units, with 14.1 million in August and 12.6 percent in September 2008, writes Financial Times. This is the second worst result for the year after the 9.17 million average annual sales recorded in February. Among the big players with the lowest drop in Ford sales is 5%, two other American manufacturers GM and Chrysler reported a decrease of respectively 45 and 42% over last year’s levels. Japanese manufacturers Toyota, Honda and Nissan have registered a fall of venue in 13%, 20% and 7%. Among the reports more sales during the ninth month of the year compared to the same Kia is raising by 24.4 percent and BMW with an increase of 3.6%. The total number of sold cars and light trucks amounted to 745 997 to 864 973 h in September 2008 or a decrease of 22.7%. One of the few profitable due to the raging economic crisis is a Korean company Hyundai, which gradually began to accumulate a reputation for its relatively cheap but high quality vehicles surged by 27% from last year September.
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The Belgian investment holding company RHJ International improve its financial proposal for the purchase of German car manufacturers Opel, owned by General Motors, offering 300 million Euro (about $ 431 million) for 50.1% of the shares of the company, police agency Reuters. The amount is 25 million more than the original price. Thus the Belgian concern hopes to grips with the Canadian Consortium Magna, which is in alliance with the Russian Sberbanka. Representatives of RHJ have confirmed their intentions in writing yesterday, September 1. Moreover, the Belgian candidate who is favored by GM, has requested that only 3.2 billion euros state aid (with EUR 6 million less than the previous application for 3,8 billion euro) and promised to return the state-guaranteed loan in period in 2013 was reduced by one year, states Reuters. Other investment and production plans have not changed RHJ.
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