In the end, it was a blow out. The mother of all initial public offerings -- that of the refreshed, revitalized and revamped General Motors -- went off better than almost anyone expected. Of course, questions abounded: Could GM sustain profitability? Was its new management team up to the job? When will GM have a product slate as highly rated as Ford's?
But investors wisely bought the story that the unprecedented bankruptcy and restructuring fundamentally altered the prospects of the world's second largest automaker.
Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel famously said, "Never let a crisis go to waste," and in GM's case at least, it didn't. Approximately $65 billion of liabilities stripped from GM's balance sheet. At least $8 billion of annual structural costs sliced from the company's bleeding North American operations. A tough new board of directors of businesspeople chosen without regard for their politics.
The result? A company that could only make money when U.S. car sales hovered around record levels of 16 to 17 million units a year now was turning handsome profits at a sales rate of fewer than 12 million light vehicles. GM earned almost as much in the first nine months as Toyota and is on track to report its first profitable full year since 2004.
Equally importantly, 77,000 U.S. jobs were saved at the automaker, hundreds of thousands -- perhaps more than a million -- were preserved across GM's far-reaching network of suppliers and dealers, and further devastation of America's heartland and its industrial base was averted.
Note the key lessons of the GM adventure. First, the availability of $82 billion from the now reviled Troubled Asset Relief Program was essential. Our ever hapless Congress would never have acted in a timely way. The existence of TARP saved our auto industry, our banking system and derivatively, our entire economy.
Second, the president's courage in insisting on shared sacrifice and willingness to back that up with the threat of liquidation for Chrysler and bankruptcy for both automakers was essential to achieving such a fundamental restructuring.
Third, management matters. A fashionable bit of revisionist history maintains that former GM chief executive Richard Wagoner should not have been fired, especially by a bunch of Wall Street guys turned government bureaucrats. Yet, Ford -- which not only avoided bankruptcy but will achieve record profits this year -- faced exactly the same challenges as GM: the same United Auto Workers, the same competition from Asian transplants, the same oscillating gasoline prices and the same credit crisis. Why did the two automakers end up on such different paths? Management.
While GM now has all the tools to succeed, it, of course, cannot afford to rest on its laurels. Much work remains. Its products, while vastly improved in recent years, still do not match those of Ford and its non-U.S. competitors. Despite the vast cost cuts, its profit margins in North America remain below Ford's. And Ford has moved far more of its products to global platforms (80 percent compared to 17 percent for GM -- what was Wagoner doing?).
While enormously successful in Brazil and China, the company must address its problems in Europe, where it is likely to lose up to $2 billion this year. The new board chose to reverse a decision to exit Europe, in part on the grounds that no global automaker can be absent from Europe. Fine. I get that. But now the company needs to find a way to at least staunch the bleeding.
I'll leave the stock picking to Jim Cramer while observing that GM's IPO was priced at a discount to Ford's trading multiple. That's understandable, given the uncertainties around GM. At the same time, proving itself to Wall Street and closing that multiple gap remains a source of upside for the newly public automaker.
Amidst a panoply of uncertainties, I'm particularly sanguine about the ability of GM's new management team to execute. I've known CEO Dan Akerson for more than 20 years and he is exactly what GM needs: a proven executive with a no nonsense, Navy-tough style. He will certainly maintain GM's newly found financial discipline. Taxpayers can be confident that they will receive back the vast preponderance of their investment.
Meanwhile, both GM and Ford are better positioned, at least for the near term, than their low-trading multiples suggest. Importantly, car sales in the U.S. will continue to rise for the foreseeable future, potentially faster than most believe. Americans need to buy more than 15 million light vehicles a year just to keep the fleet from aging and to account for new drivers. Can consumers postpone their purchases? Of course -- and they have been. But they aren't going to postpone them forever. And at 15 million, General Motors -- with its improved products, tighter management, lower cost structure and better balance sheet -- will be gushing profits.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that Rattner had accepted the fine and a two-year ban from the securities industry to resolve allegations that he paid illegal kickbacks to help his private equity firm land a lucrative investment from a state pension fund.
Now for my comment: GM declared bankruptcy regardless, wouldn't that have been the best alternative in the beginning? And how did they get out of bankruptcy so quick for such a huge company? I'm all for saving auto company jobs if the bailout really worked, but I have doubts the bailout was really necessary after they went bankrupt and popped back out in a matter of months.
It was done before almost verbatim by Lee Iacocca in the 80s with Chrysler so it was nothing new.
The "new" GM is truly a new company as they fired all the incompetent executives and changed company's culture. It will be a very successful global company.
Please help my friend's business. His pizza parlor is going bankrupt. May he get a bailout from the government?
thank you!
GM did do a good job of getting-(institutional investors only)-an incredibly inflated price for this IPO in the $30/share range.
For WE THE PEOPLE to just break even, we need a stock price of around $140/Share.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-19/gm-files-for-ipo-to-cut-treasury-s-stake-one-year-after-bailout.html
The only winner in this deal has been the UNION.
the very bottom to the top engineering staff are who creates jobs by PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
for creative contributions, efficiency improvements,.. and quality vigilance. Those workers you've heard about being paid for doing nothing even contribute because a lazy person, like me, who hates
doing hard work never mind doing it OVER!,... will find the easiest, fastest, safest way to do it,.. which in turn increases efficiency! Multiplied by thousands of "LAZY" auto workers this self- motivated efficiency drives innovative progress which in turn presents better products, more sales,
hence profits for the shareholders just as much, if not more than schmoozing on the links or in
the bars! And when the execs cut costs guided by sycophantic "Wiley Coyote" MBA's And accountants,... they always start at the point of production so as to force workers to make "Bricks
without straw!", threatening all that's GOOD, And,.. STILL,.. they do it year after year while those smartest guys in the room scramble to cover their own failures while expecting bigger bonuses!
I still have high hopes and fond dreams for America because it's always been small groups,.. the
rudder,.. that turns the ship.
One is ordinary water. Another is self-powered magnetic generators.
Closest to the market is BlackLight Power. They have an extensive website. See: www.blacklightpower.com
Our own analysis differs substantially, but we agree that one barrel of water can replace 200 barrels of oil. See: www.aesopinstitute.org
The implications for a profound improvement in fuel mileage for cars and trucks, followed by a huge expansion of the market, cannot be exaggerated.
Future production hybrid automobiles, fueled by water, are anticipated to achieve the ability to travel 1,000 miles on a gallon.
Blacklight Power claims that future cars, the size and weight of a Prius, fueled by water, will travel more than 5,600 miles per gallon using a new electric propulsion system they call CIHT.
Self-sustaining magnetic motors and generators have a long history of deluded inventors and several outright scams. However, they are not impossible. Only difficult to design and build. Self-sustaining operation is the ultimate test. For early work involving one potential example, see United States Patent #7,830,065, covering a Solid-state electric generator.
These technologies may open paths to electric cars with unlimited range.
Such systems will also turn future cars and trucks into power plants that may pay for themselves as investments.
That could help replace any need to build new coal or nuclear plants, as well as sharply increase the automotive market.
While investors are swooning over the initial public offering of General Motors stock on the New York Stock Exchange, company employees, retirees and dealers are ready to usher in a new era for the venerable car maker. http://www.newslook.com/videos/267207-detroit-ready-to-bet-on-new-general-motors?autoplay=true
Electric cars are no longer a gimmick at the car show - they're now at your local dealer. At the 2010 LA Auto Show, US auto manufacturers confirmed that "green" is a part of their long-term business plan. http://www.newslook.com/videos/267201-la-auto-show-features-dozens-of-green-cars?autoplay=true