Dongfeng Motor Group Co (東風汽車), China’s third-largest automaker, said it had received proposals from investment banks to buy assets from General Motors Corp (GM) as the US carmaker tries to avoid running out of cash.
“We’ve gotten e-mails and investment materials asking us whether we would be interested in buying some of GM’s assets,” Hu Xindong (胡信東), head of investor relations, said by telephone yesterday. “So far, our management has not yet reviewed the issues and we have not yet responded.”
He declined to name the investment banks or the assets. GM said it was not in talks with Dongfeng.
GM is seeking a buyer for its Hummer unit and has said it will consider options for Saab and Saturn as it asks Congress for US$18 billion in aid. Dongfeng and SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車), the country’s largest automaker, aim to add overseas brands to help boost sales outside of their home market.
“To get enough capital to invest overseas is not a problem for Chinese companies including automakers,” said Yu Bing (餘兵), an analyst at Pingan Securities Co (平安證券) in Shanghai. “But they are more and more aware of possible risks involving overseas acquisition, including issues about local legal regulation and labor union.”
“There are no grounds to these rumors” about Dongfeng looking at assets, said Henry Wong, GM’s Shanghai-based spokesman. “We do not comment on speculation in the press.”
GM, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC, are seeking US$34 billion from the US government to stave off an industry collapse. Ford is exploring the sale of its Volvo unit as it focuses on its namesake brand.
Western financial companies have turned to Chinese investors for money as they seek to shore up capital eroded by almost US$1 trillion in writedown and losses triggered by the collapse of the US subprime mortgage market.
Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world’s largest buyout fund, agreed last month to allow China Investment Corp (中國投資公司), its second-largest outside shareholder, to raise its stake to as much as 12.5 percent.
SAIC paid US$116 million for the design rights of MG Rover Group Ltd’s Rover 25 and 75 models in 2005. The Shanghai-based company also owns 51 percent of South Korea’s Ssangyong Motor Co.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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