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I’m optimistic we can pay off the loans faster than people think. Payment is due in 2015. We want to do it much faster than that.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson breaks our incredulity meter at the Frankfurt Auto Show. And how does Fritz propose pulling this coup off? “Creating value for our shares is the best way the taxpayer will be repaid,” he explains. In other words, Henderson expects GM’s Summer 2010 IPO to reflect the $68B market cap valuation it needs to pay back taxpayer loans. Meanwhile, GM’s Chairman reportedly puts the odds of success on any timeline at 60-40. Paging Optimist Prime . . .
21 Comments on “Quote of the Day: The Audacity of Optimism Edition...”
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When you look at the statement, “On the Fritz” Henderson has done a Mark Fields special of talking without saying anything.
“I’m optimistic we can pay off the loans faster than people think”
Are you? Weren’t you also optimistic that GM will avoid bankruptcy under Rick Wagoner (remember him, folks?)? Also, how fast do you think people think GM can pay off the loans?
“Payment is due in 2015. We want to do it much faster than that.”
Really? And here’s me thinking you want to draw it out for as long as you can, because taxpayers LOVE you running a company on their money.
Give me figures, dates, goals, metrics, comparatives. Anything!
The loans are just the $15 billion b4 bankruptcy and weren’t some of those forgiven?
They need a mountain of cocaine the size of Colombia, to raise sixty-eight billion dollars worth of cash in that time. It didn’t work for DeLorean, on the other hand, a deal like that needs connections on a governmental level. Instead of Cash for Clunkers, perhaps they could do a trade-off with South America, called Cars for Cocaine? Besides the Mother of All Drug Deals, how else would they raise that cash?
So he expects investors to buy new GM stock knowing that all that revenue is going to just service debt instead of capital investments for growth? Yea, that will light fire on IPO day. Not.
If there is such a market for GM’s debts, then I think the US government would be better served selling the debt directly. After all, there are people who are looking for places to invest. And buying debts is a market.
Oh yea… GM already tried that. And no one would touch it.
Yet another fool too busy bragging about all the great stuff he’s planning to do in the future, to ever get around to actually do anything useful today.
Is it just me, or is that smiley face/plug/zero not the most precious thing ever?
I think the plug is the cutest thing ever! In my house, all my plugs look upset. It’s cool that GM has the money to make a happy plug for their shiny happy Volt.
In reality, I hope they FOAD very soon because I’ve had enough of their constant BS and their taxpayer pilfering.
They could start by fixing Cadillac’s configurator to something that doesn’t look like it would have been top of the line in the nineties.
With all of Lutz’s crowing about the CTS-V, they sure haven’t put any money into making it desirable when you try to “build” one online. All you get is a low-rent thumbnail of the car, some crappy UI, and a $2600 “colors and options” fee that tacks on the base price with no options selected (on top of which, there’s a $995 charge for any color but black).
Seriously, we loan them all those billions and they can’t throw a couple hundred thou into the website for their luxury car line?
For those that care:
http://prod3.gmautobuilder.com/BuildYourOwn/Cadillac.byo?year=2009
Sorry, but this is eighth grade math here. He really doesnt know how big a billion is and he’s running the company? Even if they outsourced everything… wait… nevermind
imag,
so true about the crappy caddy web configurator. This is how it’s done:
http://miniusa.com
Russycle. I thought I’d been through most every configurator shopping for someone or other. That that one takes the cake.
Nice.
(sorry about the OT all)
imag :
September 17th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Seriously, we loan them all those billions and they can’t throw a couple hundred thou into the website for their luxury car line?
Agreed on that, for sure. And it’s a shame, because the CTS is a great-looking car; why not show that off?
I’d suggest they take a look at BMW’s site for how this is done.
http://www.bmwusa.com
OK, I ask again: what’s the head guy supposed to do – get up in front of an audience and do an Eeyore imitation? The dog and pony show is part of a CEO’s job description, for Chrissakes.
And, yes, I understand the frustration over having to bail this company out. Believe me, I share it.
But the rational thing to focus on now is how to get our money back, and trashing every single thing GM does – or outright wishing failure on them – isn’t going to help them succeed.
“.. Henderson has done a Mark Fields special of talking without saying anything…”
I could never stand that Fields Clown. Whenever he opens his mouth, he grossly underestimates the intelligence of his audience.
Henderson is a hairless, round-faced Wagoner, but just as clueless and incompetent.
The only consolation is that the “future” or “new” GM we the long-suffering taxpayers will support will be a tiny fraction of the onetime GM, at least as measured by its market share. Old GM was well over 50%, the new will shrink from its current 20% to 10% in no time.
Off topic, but the photo reminded me. Two days ago I spotted a Volt prototype heading west in I-70 here in Colorado. It had black vinyl “bras” front and back, and yet, it was clearly recognizable. With all the publicity photos of it out there, why did they bother with half assed disguise?
ttacgreg :
September 18th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Off topic, but the photo reminded me. Two days ago I spotted a Volt prototype heading west in I-70 here in Colorado. It had black vinyl “bras” front and back, and yet, it was clearly recognizable. With all the publicity photos of it out there, why did they bother with half assed disguise?
Probably didn’t want people snooping too closely – that’s SOP for cars undergoing this type of testing.
Colorado’s a great place to catch new production cars undergoing high-altitude testing and high-mileage proving. When I first moved here, I got a temp job driving brand-new Chryslers around in the mountains, the goal being to put huge mileage on the cars quickly.
Best job I ever had.
ttacgreg: Best job I ever had.
Dude! Driving Chryslers? You need to get out more! The job might be good but the experience had to be hell.
@FreedMike:
“But the rational thing to focus on now is how to get our money back, and trashing every single thing GM does – or outright wishing failure on them – isn’t going to help them succeed.”
I wrote off ever collecting any Social Security many years ago.
I have already written off ever recouping any of “my investment” in either GM or ChryCo. There is nothing rational about focusing on getting our money back – it’s looooong gone, buddy.
Your tax dollars at work…..
GM doesn’t actually “owe” the government that much. Through the sweetheart bankruptcy, our government converted much of that money into an “investment”, equity in the company. The initial public offering will establish the value of the government’s ownership stake, it won’t bring in $68 billion in cash. That dollar figure is the estimated value of all the stock the company will be authorized to issue. The government probably won’t get a peeny of the IPO proceeds, that will be retained by GM (in lieu of further cash subsidies). GM will probably continue to finance itself with that offering process until it has issued all its authorized stock, and I hope by then the government has sold off its stake.
I was at a presentation about the stupid Volt yesterday, two students were talking about all kinds of logostics issues, and took cover under “confidentiality” so not to say anything of value or even remotely informative, BUT they did annoy me by repeating that fraudulent, misleading “230 MPG” BIG LIE.
I challenged them on it, asked them if they saw the calculation of the 230, and, since it includes the electricity they burn, how much would the REAL cost of fuel be? They claimed ignorance, a (probably GM type) from the audience told me that the 230 includes “one full battery charge”, and when I asked how much the electricity costs to charge the battery once, some wiseguy said “50 cents”. However, the local station charged me $25 to charge my much smaller regular car battery…LOL.