India’s Hindustan Motors Ltd has sold its Ambassador car to France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen for just US$12 million, capping a spectacular downfall for a vehicle once emblematic of the country’s political class.
The CK Birla group, the owners of Hindustan Motors, sold the car brand for 800 million rupees (US$12 million) to the French automakers, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday.
Hindustan Motors, India’s oldest automaker, stopped production of the Ambassador in 2014 citing debt and lack of demand for the vehicle which was designed on Britain’s long-defunct Morris Oxford.
“We have sold it for just 800 million rupees, but we had already stopped production at the plant nearly three years back. The plant has been closed since,” the official said.
CURVY
Last month, the Birla group had signed a separate agreement with Peugeot to set up two joint ventures with production capacity initially estimated at 100,000 vehicles per year by 2020.
The PSA group, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, said at the time it had not yet decided which model it will build in India.
The curvy Ambassador once ruled India’s roads and for years was the only car driven by politicians and senior government officials.
However, the car was muscled out over the years by the entry of more modern vehicles, particularly SUVs increasingly favored by senior bureaucrats.
The car still remains popular with some taxi drivers and politicians and tourists looking for nostalgia.
The PSA group was among the first foreign car manufacturers to make a foray into India in the 1990s after the government opened up investment, but after a fall-out with its local partners, the company withdrew from India in 1997.
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
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS