By putting British luxury car Aston Martin on the block, the ailing US auto giant Ford Motor Co is gearing up the restructuring of its global automotive business, analysts say.
Ford announced on Thursday it wants to hive off Aston Martin, the dashing sports car immortalized by fictional superspy James Bond.
The loss-making Detroit company said it wanted to free up resources for its other auto brands, and said that prospective buyers had already come forward for the legendary British marque.
PHOTO: AFP
Chairman and chief executive Bill Ford said that Aston Martin had "flourished" since it became part of the US group in 1986, "which is why we believe it is prudent to consider a sale of all or part of this prized brand."
Bill Ford said the British unit's dealer network, products and size were all distinctly different from other Ford brands, making it "the most logical and capital-smart divestiture choice."
Any sale would enable Ford "to efficiently raise capital for its other brands," Bill Ford added.
While Ford does not break out the profit and loss statement for individual brands, company officials made a point of stressing that Aston Martin is profitable.
Ford has not yet decided on the future of Aston Martin's stablemates in the company's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), including luxury carmaker Jaguar, Bill Ford added in a statement.
"However, we continue to be encouraged by Jaguar's progress and by the strength and consumer appeal of the Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo product lineups," he said.
Analysts saw the spinoff of Aston Martin as a relatively simple move to advance the company's battle to revamp operations as it suffers hefty losses in income and market share.
Jack Nerad of Kelly Blue Book, which collects data on car sales, said putting Aston Martin up for sale first makes sense because it is relatively independent of other Ford units.
"Its an island unto itself," he said.
Brett Smith, a senior industry analyst at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, also saw the structural logic of the spinoff.
"If you look at the PAG group, Aston Martin is the least truly integrated into the Ford system in terms of the dealer network and all that goes with it," Smith said.
"Some potential buyer with the right financial backing could come in and create a unique brand that is profitable," he said.
"That's harder for some of the other PAG brands like Jaguar or Volvo, because they're so much intertwined with the rest of the Ford group," he said.
Analysts said there were rumors of Chinese and South Korean interest in Aston Martin. Smith suggested privately backed equity groups were more likely to make a move than large automakers like Volkswagen or Honda.
"Anybody who does this is going to buy the prestige. For an Asian manufacturer, it would give them immediate name recognition and the chance to approach a market that, with their low costs, they could do very well in," Smith said.
But he warned of image pitfalls in a non-European acquisition.
"If it's a European or British-led buyout, the marque keeps its name. If it goes elsewhere in the world, you lose that heritage. That's a serious risk," he said.
"Whether a buyer of an Aston Martin would be happy to be buying effectively a Chinese car remains to be seen," he added.
Smith also predicted that Ford would not be in the driver's seat in the sale.
"Ford is going to get less than it's probably worth, certainly less than they've put into it over the years. Buyers know that Ford's in trouble and are going to drive a pretty hard bargain," he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)