Fiat Chrysler has been sued in a class-action lawsuit accusing it of knowingly selling defective vehicles, according to Hagens Berman.
The Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers began restarting assembly lines on Monday after a two-month coronavirus lockdown in a slow revival of a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in the United States. On a chilly and damp Monday morning, hundreds of workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobile's (FCA) truck plant in Warren, Michigan, began lining up before 4 a.m. to start the 5 a.m. shift. "I'm a little nervous," said Larry Smith, 53, of New Baltimore, who works on wheel alignment away from the assembly line.
In April, the auto industry reached its bottom as car registrations in Europe fell 76%, the strongest drop in demand recorded. This past month, however, European carmakers, such as Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag (OTC: BMWY), Volkswagen AG (OTC: VWAGY) and Daimler AG (OTC: DDAIF), were able to take advantage of loosened work restrictions and restart production.As of Monday, U.S. automakers are now able to start production as well. General Motors General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) did more than fortify its balance sheet over the past decade. Besides developing carefully thought-out protocols while producing medical equipment during the pandemic and reopening its Asian plants, GM has a crisis playbook that will ensure stakeholder safety during its quick restoration of production, sales, and profits.Overall, GM predicts it will be back to full production levels in about 4 weeks.Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) resumed operations at 9 facilities across the U.S. with robust health and safety protocols. Its European plants restarted recently, with China leading the reboot over 2 weeks ago.The pandemic cost Ford $2 billion during its first fiscal quarter, with the second-quarter loss is estimated to be far greater as the company already drew more than $15 billion from its credit line.Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE: FCAU) was amongst the worst hit automakers as it realized losses up to $1.8 billion.Alongside the loss, FCAU will face antitrust regulators for a $50 billion merger with PSA Group (OTC: PEUGF), which would result in the creation of the world's fourth-biggest carmaker, surpassing Volkswagen as the market leader in Europe.The Problem Remains Monday was a huge day as 51 plants gradually resumed production.The main issue, however, lies in whether the industry can innovate and evolve to fit the growing demand for self-driving and electrification, currently led by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA).This article is not a press release and is contributed by Ivana Popovic who is a verified independent journalist for IAMNewswire. It should not be construed as investment advice at any time please read the full disclosure. Ivana Popovic does not hold any position in the mentioned companies. Press Releases - If you are looking for full Press release distribution contact: press@iamnewswire.com Contributors - IAM Newswire accepts pitches. If you're interested in becoming an IAM journalist contact: contributors@iamnewswire.com Questions about this release can be sent to ivana@iamnewswire.comPhoto by Craig Adderley From Pexels. See more from Benzinga * Opinion: Is Amazon Really A Winner Of The Pandemic? * Beauty Sector Looks Promising Amid COVID-19 * The Oil Crisis Can Harm US Economy, But Not Like COVID-19(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
(Bloomberg) -- Lender Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is nearing approval of a 6.3 billion-euro ($6.9 billion) credit facility for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, in what would be Europe’s biggest government-backed financing to a carmaker since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.Intesa has scheduled a Tuesday board meeting to approve the deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Top executives from Fiat Chrysler and Intesa discussed terms over the last few days and have reached an agreement, said the people, who asked not to be named because deliberations aren’t public. While Intesa’s approval is a crucial step, the financing needs a sign-off from trade-credit insurer Sace SpA and by the Italian government.Spokesmen for both Fiat Chrysler and Intesa declined to comment.Italian UnitThe state-guaranteed loan is designed to bolster the domestic auto industry by directly channeling resources to Fiat’s suppliers. The credit facility under discussion would be for Fiat’s Italian unit, which last year lost about $1 billion before taxes. Car sales in Italy plunged 98% in April and Fiat’s plants were mostly shuttered during the nationwide lockdown in March and April.In the envisaged deal, Italy’s top lender would lead a three-year loan facility to help finance the manufacturer’s business in the country, Fiat Chrysler said in a statement earlier this month. Sace would guarantee 80% of the amount through a mechanism that would need final approval by the Finance Ministry.Carmakers have been among the hardest-hit industries during the Covid-19 crisis, with factory shutdowns and cratering sales in markets from China and Europe to the U.S.Fiat Chrysler burned through $5.5 billion in the first quarter, and the Italian-American company and French peer PSA Group earlier this month scrapped a plan to pay out 1.1 billion euros in dividends as part of their 2019 merger agreement.The new financing plan would “provide further support to some 10,000 small and medium enterprises in the automotive supply chain in Italy,” Fiat Chrysler said in its May 16 statement.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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Before going to work these days, employees at the Brazilian unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
(Bloomberg) -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA are negotiating a state-backed credit line of as much as 6.3 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in Europe’s biggest government-guaranteed financing for a carmaker since the coronavirus pandemic.Italy’s top lender would lead a three-year loan facility to help finance the manufacturer’s business in the country, Fiat Chrysler said in a statement. Sace SpA, Italy’s trade-credit insurer, will guarantee 80% of the amount in a mechanism that would need approval by the Finance Ministry. Bloomberg reported the talks on Friday.Fiat Chrysler shares rose 3.1% as of 9:51 a.m in Milan on Monday, while its 3.75% notes due in 2024 were little changed at 100.4 cents on the euro.Carmaking is among industries that have been hit hardest by the Covid-19 crisis, which forced factory stoppages and crippled sales in markets from China and Europe to the U.S. Fiat Chrysler burned through $5.5 billion in the first quarter. The Italian-American company and French peer PSA Group last week scrapped the 1.1 billion-euro dividends that each agreed to pay as part of their 2019 merger agreement.The financing would “provide further support to some 10,000 small and medium enterprises in the automotive supply chain in Italy following the reopening of the company’s Italian plants beginning at the end of April,” Fiat Chrysler said in its statement late Saturday.Companies worldwide have borrowed almost $600 billion since late March to bolster their balance sheets. But no sector has been more aggressive than the auto industry, which has tapped banks for $100 billion by either making drawdowns from existing facilities or seeking new loans.General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have tapped credit lines to stock up on billions of dollars in cash. Last month, Daimler AG secured a 12 billion-euro credit line and Renault SA struck a 5 billion-euro loan guarantee deal with the French state.Governments across Europe have provided support for over 22 billion euros in corporate loan facilities through mid-May.Fiat Chrysler has raised almost 10 billion euros to help it weather the pandemic. Earlier, it took out a new, 3.5 billion-euro loan and drew down 6.25 billion euros from a revolving facility. Separately, the company is planning to repay part of the facility via a bond sale of as much as 1 billion euros, people familiar with the matter said last week.Fiat, which stands for “Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino,” or Italian factory based in Turin, has faced criticism since shifting its center of gravity out of Italy following its merger with Chrysler. The carmaker in 2014 moved its legal headquarters to the Netherlands and its tax residence to the U.K.The new credit line is now attracting renewed scrutiny by politicians and labor unions. Andrea Orlando, Democratic Party’s deputy secretary and former Justice Minister under Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni’s governments, has called for the relocation of the carmaker’s headquarters back to Italy.Roberto Di Maulo, head of the Fismic labor union, said the lack of direct financial support by Italy’s government has forced Fiat Chrysler to seek the bank loan. Having offered support for businesses such as bikes and scooters, Italy should now focus on the much bigger automotive sector, said Marco Bentivogli, leader of the Fim Cisl union.While Fiat Chrysler’s most profitable operations are in the U.S., carmaking remains a key part of the Italian industry, accounting about 6% of the country’s economy and about 7% of employment in the manufacturing sector.At a press conference on Saturday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Fiat is entitled to apply for a state-backed loan despite being headquartered abroad. “We are speaking about Italian factories that give work to a lot of Italian employees,” he said.In Italy, Fiat employs about 55,000 workers at 16 plants and 26 research and development sites. Some 200,000 jobs at 5,500 suppliers are linked to Fiat’s local operations.(Updates with shares, bond movement in third paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Daimler AG, Tesla, Toyota, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler
In this episode of Influencers, Ford CEO Jim Hackett joins Andy Serwer to analyze the health of the U.S. auto industry and discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the American workforce.
Italy could look into Fiat Chrysler's planned 5.5 billion euro ($6 billion) payout as part of its merger with Peugeot after the Italian-American carmaker asked for a 6.3 billion euro state-backed loan, a senior government source said. "Most of us oppose the payment of the maxi-dividend by FCA," one prominent 5 Star source told Reuters, adding that some party members were also campaigning to extend the ban on dividend payments in the loan scheme until the end of 2021.
Tenneco Inc. (NYSE: TEN) will participate in the Deutsche Bank 2020 Global Auto Industry Conference to be held virtually on Thursday, June 11, 2020. The webcasted presentation is scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. Eastern. Brian Kesseler, chief executive officer, and Ken Trammell, interim chief financial officer, will give a strategic overview and provide information regarding matters impacting Tenneco's outlook.
The Detroit Three automakers and their suppliers began restarting assembly lines on Monday after a two-month coronavirus lockdown in a slow revival of a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in the United States. On a chilly and damp Monday morning, hundreds of workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobile's (FCA) truck plant in Warren, Michigan began lining up before 4 a.m. to start the 5 a.m. shift. "I'm a little nervous," said Larry Smith, 53, of New Baltimore, who works on wheel alignment away from the assembly line.
Fiat's (FCAU) Italian unit has been working with Intesa Sanpaolo for more than a month now to obtain the state-backed loan, designed to help the company combat the coronavirus crisis.
Terms of a planned merger between Fiat Chrysler
(Bloomberg) -- European car sales virtually stopped in April, dropping the most on record after the coronavirus halted production and closed dealerships from Spain to Germany.Passenger vehicle registrations in the European Union, the European Free Trade Association and the U.K. fell 78% year-over-year. Companies sold just 292,182 cars -- the lowest number since data-gathering began in 1990, and a further drop from March, itself a month of plummeting sales, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said Tuesday.Carmakers from Ford Motor Co. to Volkswagen AG have warned they’ll lose money because of the pandemic, which has shuttered factories and showrooms for weeks. European governments are slowly relaxing lockdown rules and factories are firing up again, fueling hopes that April will mark the trough.While visibility remains low, auto sales rebounded in China last month, an encouraging sign for the rest of the world. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday proposed a recovery fund that would soften the region’s economic blow.Nevertheless, European consumer behavior remains uncertain because of shaky investor confidence and concerns that restrictions could be tightened again in the event of a second wave of infections.Sales have dropped about 40% during the first four months of the year, in a sign that a full recovery will take some time. European car sales are forecast to decline as much as 20% in 2020, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Michael Dean.The Stoxx 600 Automotive & Parts index was little changed as of 8:30 a.m. in London on Tuesday after gaining 8% a day earlier.Clean SweepEvery single European nation reported falling registrations last month, from a 61% drop in Germany, the region’s largest market, to a 97% plunge in Spain, where just over 4,100 cars were sold. The U.K., Italy and France posted similar declines.Manufacturers have also increased spending on electric vehicles required to meet tougher emissions regulations, investments funded by profits from conventional cars.The pandemic’s effects on the economy is forecast to give electric vehicles a boost in China, Europe and other countries that have prioritized a transition to batter-powered cars, according to a report released Tuesday by BloombergNEF. Overall, however global auto sales aren’t expected to recover for five years.PSA Group’s Citroen will make adjustments to its car-launch schedule over the next 18 months, said unit chief executive officer Vincent Cobee.“The last two months and maybe the next three or four are extremely challenging from a balance sheet point of view,” he said Tuesday at a conference organized by BloombergNEF.To counter the slump, Volkswagen has held back on a decision to build a new factory in Turkey, is temporarily idling some assembly lines at its largest factory in Wolfsburg and is offering customers improved financing conditions and protected rates should buyers lose their jobs.Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV is negotiating a state-backed credit line of as much as 6.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion) to help shore up its balance sheet, the company said Saturday.Governments in Europe are debating how much help the auto industry should get -- while ensuring not to neglect other sectors facing similar problems. Merkel this month dashed the powerful German car industry’s hopes for immediate auto purchasing subsidies, with her government deferring a decision until June. French Finance Minister Bruno le Maire said his country would come up with support measures by the end of next month.Hope -- and a possible glimpse into Europe’s near future -- is coming from China, where authorities have controlled the pandemic and new consumer trends are emerging.Demand in the world’s largest auto market is recovering as many first-time buyers look for new ways to get around while staying off buses and trains that could expose them to the virus, Volkswagen’s China chief said earlier this month.(Updates with auto executive comment from 11th paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Tenneco Inc.´s (NYSE:TEN) Powertrain business group is launching a range of new GOETZE® branded industrial spark plugs, designed for industrial gas engines. With proven durability for these applications, GOETZE plugs are designed and manufactured for robust, reliable service.
Italy could look into Fiat Chrysler's
Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo is expected to give a preliminary green light at a board meeting on Tuesday to a state-backed 6.3 billion euro ($6.9 billion) three-year loan for Fiat Chrysler, a source close to the matter said. Fiat Chrysler (FCA) earlier this month said its Italian unit was working with Rome and Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest retail bank, to obtain state guarantees on a loan facility designed to help the group's operations in the country and the whole Italian automotive industry. Before the loan is granted, FCA's Italian unit will need to complete the approval process with Italy's export credit agency SACE, through which the state provides its guarantee, and then obtain a final authorisation and conditions for the loan from the Treasury.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- John Elkann, scion of the billionaire Agnelli clan, isn’t having an easy Covid-19 crisis. His $9 billion sale of the PartnerRE reinsurance business collapsed last week after the family’s holding company, Exor NV, refused to lower its asking price price. Then Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said it would scrap a proposed dividend for 2019, denying Exor another 315 million euros ($341 million) in change.And things could get worse. The terms of Fiat’s proposed merger with France’s Peugeot SA, negotiated before the coronavirus pandemic, require the Italian carmaker to pay its shareholders — the largest of whom are the Agnellis — a 5.5 billion-euro special dividend before the deal closes.The size of that payment always looked questionable, given that Fiat’s balance sheet is inferior to Peugeot’s. The Covid-19 outbreak makes it unconscionable. Having halted production, both companies are burning through cash and Fiat has had to ask Italy to guarantee a 6.3 billion-euro three-year loan to support its domestic suppliers. Surely the first priority here should be making sure the new company has strong enough finances as the economy starts to reopen.The politics of Fiat asking for help from Rome is especially awkward after the carmaker moved its tax residency to the U.K. in 2014, and its legal headquarters to the Netherlands. Last year, Italy’s competition watchdog said that the country’s tax revenues had suffered significantly as a result.Paying a fat dividend to the Agnellis and other shareholders after leaning on taxpayers probably wouldn’t go down very well with the public — as Germany’s BMW AG and other recent dividend payers have discovered. If Elkann still wants his sweetener, the two parties will need to find a way that doesn’t bleed the new merged entity of cash.Right now, money is flowing rapidly out of both companies. For the most part that’s because suppliers still need paying, even though the companies aren’t selling many cars. I’ve written before about companies suffering from these so-called negative working-capital problems.Fiat ate through 5 billion euros of cash in the first three months of 2020 and it could consume twice that in the second quarter, according to Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois. He expects Peugeot to burn through about 8 billion euros of cash in the first half of the year.Neither company is in danger of running out of money, and those working capital-related outflows should reverse once the carmakers start producing and selling cars again. Even so, one lesson of Covid-19 is that companies need larger cash cushions. Until there’s a vaccine, there’s a risk that a second virus wave would trigger yet more industrial disruption.There’s no great urgency for Fiat and Peugeot to alter the terms of their union as the deal isn’t expected to close until early next year. The rationale for joining forces remains intact; the cost savings from working together look even more important now. But they should be thinking of ways to make the future company resilient.Structured as a 50-50 merger, Peugeot ended up paying a premium for boardroom control, as well as for the Italian company’s lucrative U.S. truck business — even though Peugeot shares had been valued more highly by the market. Some of the arguments for paying Fiat a sweetener remain valid: Peugeot’s reliance on the struggling European car market isn’t looking too attractive right now. But there are other ways to compensate Fiat shareholders. For example, Peugeot is due to spin off its 46% stake in parts supplier Faurecia SE to its shareholders as part of the original merger terms. This could be retained instead by the combined business.Without their Fiat dividends, the Agnellis will have less money to reinvest in new ventures. Right now, though, the car industry’s need is greater.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Mexico's auto industry reopening picked up pace on Tuesday, with Fiat Chrysler