Informa Global Markets (IGM) “is a world-class international supplier of real-time news and analysis to market professionals in the fields of foreign exchange, sovereign fixed income and corporate bonds.” It’s the stuff brokerage houses and investment bankers pay a lot of money for in order to look smart with their clients. Would definitely bust TTAC’s budget. Some of my friends in high finance still hold a job, and one of them (you know who you are) was nice enough to forward me yesterday’s IGM “Markets At Midday” issue. Reads like “Markets At Midway.” With the appropriate ending: The bad guys lose.

The sun never sets on TTAC’s devious empire. While America Slept (WAS) is a daily round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off. Our pledge: No feelings will be hurt (except those of automobile execs, one copy-writer, and the gravitationally challenged.)

Opel’s ad attack: While other car companies slash ad budgets, GM’s Opel unleashes a Blitzkrieg on the German populace. “Opel Secures Future” blares the banner headline of full page ads appearing in national German newspapers. [NB: The line doesn’t say “Opel’s Future Secure”]. According to Bloomberg, the target of the ad-attack is to “reassure car buyers that may be spooked by the woes of its parent.”  The copy-writer must have been high on something, hyperbole at the very least:  “Opel is financially solid and as a brand and a company not at risk.” Boerse-Express says the true aim of the ads is Opel’s foot: “If they are doing so well, why loan guarantees?” Good question.

GM in denial: RenCen weighs in on the topic, says “Opel is not for sale.” Not because they wouldn’t want to. GM flak Tom Wilkinson tells AFP that brands like Opel “are so integrated into GM’s global operations, we would not or could not sell them.” Darn. Nothing works anymore.

Dealers ready to buy Opel: Opel’s German dealer council met last Tuesday and discussed to buy Opel themselves, before Opel goes under. “This is under serious consideration,” says Paul Schäfer, GM of Opel Staiger in Stuttgart, to Automobilwoche (sub.) The money could be raised. Despite (or because) of GM’s denials, the dealers are worried. In the meantime, non-essential expenses, such as a new CI for dealers or a revamped DMS have been put on ice.

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We made a huge mistake with our “SAIC may buy GM” story. We paid for our sins. The story created so much traffic that it literally melted two servers. TTAC’s China Syndrome. As you are painfully aware, TTAC was out of commission several times yesterday. A day after the story broke, the story broke our servers. Hit counters for all stories are currently SNAFU; they just gave up and went home. A huge amount of traffic keeps pouring in from China. And no wonder: a Chinese search for the same story produces 76,500 hits. If we’d run this story a few months ago, a wagon would have pulled up outside of TTAC World Headquarters, and they would have taken us away in straitjackets and a Thorazine drip in our veins. Now, a lot of people think GM is crazy for not doing the deal. A Connecticut hedge fund manger, who we reached for comment, looked at the screen, said “Ugh, the market is ugly.” When prodded to focus on GM and SAIC, he said: “If I’d be GM, I’d be in Shanghai right now, negotiating the deal. Then I would go to Congress and say: What are you going to do about it?”

When America gets out of bed, Tokyo is heading home in crowded subways, and Europeans still finish long lunches. While America Slept (WAS) is a daily round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off. Due to popular demand, today, no sordid jokes. Get A1 if you want spice.

Aussie wants SAIC to buy Holden: In the SAIC-buys-GM saga, Melbourne-based publisher of GoAuto.com.au, John Mellor, said to Gasgoo that “Holden could wind up in the hands of SAIC and being Asian-owned could help springboard the local industry into the growing Asian car markets.” While Dear John was at it, he also opined that Australia could be bought by the Indian-based Tata Group.

Opel stunt a derivates play? As reported, the German company SolarWorld AG offered €1b to buy Opel Germany. German wags think the SolarWorld is a “marketing stunt” at best. Other think, SolarWorld lost their mind. For sure, SolarWorld’s stock tanked on the news. SolarWorld’s CEO Asbeck denies this morning via Reuters allegations that the matter was a derivatives play. Asbeck still claims he’s serious, and that he has “received a different answer from GM HQ than from Opel.” Opel yesterday said: “Nein.”

Opel survival guaranteed: In its final hour, the parliament of Hesse approved up to €800m in loan guarantees for Opel, writes the Rhein-Neckar Zeitung. After the money was approved, the parliament dissolved itself. New elections are scheduled for January. The loan guarantees are in place for the unlikely case that GM goes bust. Wait, there’s less …

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Watching the pressed suits in front of Dodd’s Committee made me sad last night. (Yes, we can watch CSPAN in China. On-line. Amazing. Probably a ploy to dissuade the Chinese populace from wanting democracy.) Sad I was, because I had expected an “are you or have you ever been tearing out the very heart of America’s industrial base?” I missed that a lot. Gettelfinger made me sad. How could he throw GM under the bus by giving the employer of his $73/hr union sisters and brothers last rank on the viability scale? Saddest made me Rick Wagoner. If he would have done the Iacocca, if he would have said, “Yes, I work for $1, I’m not worthy of more,” the bailout package would already be in the can. He blew it. Now there I sat, tears in my face, and German as I am, I thought: Rick Wagoner? As in Richard Wagoner? As in Richard Wagner with a typo? Last night was Richard Wagoner’s Götterdämmerung. You watched the funeral march of General Motors. Someone got a napkin? Danke.

While America Slept (WAS) is a daily round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones while America suffers bailout-or-no-bailout-induced nightmares. Around the world, a network of bleary-eyed TTAC correspondents provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off.  Today in TTAC’s morning zoo:

Renault in dire straits: “Will Renault be the next car-casualty?” asks the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This after Renault guided its year-end prognosis way down. Renault’s troubles will be Nissan’s pain. Both are joined at the aching hip. In an interview with the WSJ, Carlos Ghosn, double-head of Renault and Nissan, said he would “push for Europe to offer a €40 billion ($50 billion) loan program targeted at retooling,” (the books, presumably.) He also said, Japan should follow suit.  Gimme the money, s’il vous plait.

China pulling out of Russia: China’s largest SUV and truck maker Great Wall Motor Co said to Gasgoo that they will “terminate their joint venture in Russia because of hard industry protectionist measures in the country.” No Landwinds for the Russkies. Wait, there WAS more …

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The story that Chinese SAIC and Dongfeng are thinking (aloud) about buying GM or Chrysler, or maybe both, created a firestorm on both sides of the no longer so Pacific Ocean. Just in case someone still thinks it’s a fluke, the Chinese media is chockablock full of the story. It’s all in (duh) Chinese, but trust us: from mass-outlets like Sina.com all the way to the government-owned Autoinfo.gov.cn, their headlines shout (in Chinese: ) “SAIC and Dongfeng intend to buy GM.” As far as more substance to the story goes, there’s not much to report. We and our friends over at Gasgoo made some phone calls to the parties involved, and first received nothing but a “wu ke feng gao,” which the Mandarin-speakers amongst the B&B recognize as a “no comment.” Then, the denials poured in.

“GM will not sell its joint ventures,“ said Zhou Fangyu, former director of GM Business Development Department. An anonymous source at SAIC told Gasgoo.com reporters in a phone interview that he “hasn’t heard of SAIC’s plans to buy GM or Chrysler.” However, he also noted that “it may be possible for SAIC to buy some suppliers or joint ventures of GM in China.” A definite maybe. And then …

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Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today. [A National Enquirer the paper is not. It is one of China’s leading business newspapers, with a daily readership over three million.] The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.” These hints are very often followed with quick action in the Middle Kingdom. The hints were dropped just a few days after the same Chinese government gave its auto makers the go-ahead to invest abroad. And why would they do that?

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While America Slept (WAS) is a  morning round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones while America was tossing and turning. From Japan to Jakarta, a network of sleep-deprived TTAC correspondents provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off.  Here are the latest animals in TTAC’s morning zoo.

Ford dumps Mazda. Tormented U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co may announce plans to sell a 20 percent stake in long-time affiliate Mazda Motor Corp as early as today, Japan’s Nikkei business daily (sub) reported as the sun rose in the land of the rising sun. Japanese broadcaster NHK had reported more than a month ago that Ford is looking to severely lighten-up on Mazda. Currently, Ford has a controlling stake of 33.4 percent in the Japanese automaker, but Ford needs the cash.

Sell-off drives up shares: Selling a 20 percent stake will net Ford around $850 million, or more. Mazda’s shares jumped 6.4 percent on the report of Ford’s sell-off.  The estranged lovers share vehicle platforms and engineering resources and own several assembly plants together in the United States, Thailand and China. With Ford out of control at Mazda, those plants should receive some Japanese gardening.

Deal done. Later in the Japanese day, Mazda sent out an official release confirming the story. It’s in Japanese, but a usually reliable source (my Japanese wife) says it’s the real McCoy-San. Ford is down to 13 percent. Kawaii!

GM-Europe-VP: “The end may not be near.” Brent Dewar, multipurpose VP for Sales, Marketing, and After-Sales at GM Europe penned an inspirational letter to dealers: “As bad as the current results may sound, we don’t know whether we already have reached the end of the crisis.” Autohaus has a copy. From his bunker in Zurich, Dewar commands his sales forces to “fight to the last sale.”

And that WASn’t all, there’s …
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While managers and union leaders of Opel and GM-Europe had a crisis summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers at the Kanzleramt,  the drumbeat of “disentanglement” of Opel from GM picked up a steady rhythm. On Saturday, it was just whispers being picked up by TTAC from German contacts. On Sunday, it was press reports that openly discussed to jettison the Opel lifeboat from the sinking mothership. Today, everybody says it was their idea. Even Opel managers, who were just privately grumbling before, are outing themselves: “Managers at Opel would ideally like to see the unit spun-off from GM, a move which would decisively disentangle the company from the financial and political dramas unfolding in Detroit,” writes Germany’s news magazine Der Spiegel. “German politicians and union leaders like Armin Schild also support the idea. Schild declared on Monday that GM must “let Opel go free.” Free, but where, and how?

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Ouch, that hurts, or “tong, tong!” as they say in China. “China’s largest automaker, SAIC Motor Corp, is poised to surpass the combined market value of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.” Bloomberg followed the market capitalization of the three automakers as far back as the year 2000. Then, Ford and GM were worth $100b, about 50 times the value of SAIC. At the end of last week, the difference shrunk to a mere $570m. As the stock of both GM and Ford are twirling further down the toilet, the Shanghai auto maker will soon be bigger than both former Detroit giants together. Says Bloomberg: “GM most recently traded at $3.01 per share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and Ford was at $1.80, for a combined market value of $6.14 billion. SAIC shares ended the week at 5.8 yuan (85 cents), for a value of $5.57 billion.”  Want some background?

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Gooooooooooooooood morning, America! While America Slept (WAS) is a daily TTAC round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones (such as California.) With a network of correspondents around the globe, TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off. Welcome to the morning zoo.

Lemon-Aid: Several people at Daimler’s Quality Assurance department in Sindelfingen are being investigated by Stuttgart’s public prosecutor, writes the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.  The allegation: They intentionally made cars with flaws. The fixing of which was outsourced. The companies that did the fixing fixed up the QA guys with expensive gifts and luxury trips. Damage: “In the high million Euros.” They might be doing time for that.

Porsche agrees with Obama: Porsche wants change. At the Volkswagen Supervisory Board Meeting this week, Porsche Chief “Wendy” Wiedeking will request that VW keeps the Golf VI (that’s Roman numeral 6) longer than until 2011 (as planned.) Should save some R&D money right here and now. Also to be changed: A “Committee for Special Business Relations.” That committee prevented know-how transfer from Audi to Porsche. Porsche thinks, the committee is superfluous. Also reported in the Sueddeutsche.

POTUS is a Renegade: Speaking of Obama, the London Times reports that the “The United States Secret Service revealed its not-so-secret code-name for president-elect Barack Obama last week: Renegade. If it sounds like the make of a car, that’s because it is. The Renegade is a concept car being developed by Chrysler, an open-topped jeep powered by electricity and diesel. Should the car ever make it into production then, like its namesake president-to-be, it, too, promises change – this time at 110 miles per gallon.” Gotta love them Brit sentences. Wait, there’s more!

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Guess who will be at the 2008 Los Angeles auto show, November 21-30?  A Volkswagen Passat. But it won’t be just any Passat. It will be a Passat produced by Shanghai VW.  As if this is not shocking enough: The thing will be powered by a hydrogen fuel-cell. Shanghai Security News humbly reports that this might be the “first China-made new-energy car model of the Volkswagen brand to be displayed at an auto show.” It for sure is the first Made-in-China VeeDub ever to enter a US show. And it runs on hydrogen. How about that. The powertrain was jointly developed between SVW’s SAIC, Tongji University and Shanghai Shen-Li High Tech Co., Ltd. The car, veedubbed “Lingyu,” will reach a top speed of 150 km/h and should be good for more than 300 km at one hydrogen charging, albeit “with further innovation and maximization,” say the Security News via Gasgoo. SVW had built 500 fuel-cell hybrid sedans already for the green Olympic fleet, and wants to mass-produce the hydrogen fuel-cell Lingyu by early 2010. But will it sell?

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Time for the United Auto Workers (UAW) to collect second-hand songbooks and ship ‘em over to their comrades– make that “union brothers” in China. Chinese taking our jobs? Wake up guys! Solidarity forever! The Chinese worker is taking it on the chin just like the working stiff in God’s Own Country. And let’s ignore the fact for a while that FICA, SECA, COBRA, and VEBA are not part of the Chinese language. PSA Peugeot Citroën, an affiliate of Dongfeng Motor in China, has “decided not to renew the contracts” (translation: has fired) 1000 workers on their Wuhan site, Gasgoo reports. Volkswagen, which depends on China for 15 percent of its worldwide auto sales, gave the Chinese equivalent of pink slips to 700 people at their Changchun factory. According to Chinese media reports, Ford, BMW, Chery, and untold more are busy. Busy thinning out their working masses, that is. Where did all the thousand flowers go?

This weekend’s G20 meeting was pretty much a non-event. A Bretton Wood it was not. While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck were still in DC, an urgent e-mail was sent to Carl-Peter Foster, chief of GM Europe. Also on the To: line: Hans Demant, head of GM’s German Opel subsidiary. They were ordered to get their glutei maximi to Berlin. They were furthermore told to bring Opel’s workers council chief Klaus Franz along. Bloomberg reports that the sit down’s set for the Kanzleramt, right after mammy comes home and emerges from her Airbus 310 (named “Konrad Adenauer,” after Germany’s first chancellor, who’s busy rotating in his grave).