GM starebbe conducendo trattative per acquistare alcuni impianti da Delphi. Delphi ed i suoi creditori chiederebbero 2 mld $, GM sarebbe disponibile a pagare poco o niente.
Nell'ottica di GM, si tratterebbe di recuperare la polpa di quella produzione di componentistica Delphi che le è assolutamente necessaria (circa il 20% del valore delle vendite attuale di Delphi), lasciando andare al proprio destino il resto.
L'auspicio è che tale accordo incontri l'assenso del governo USA, interessato al salvataggio del maggior numero di posti di lavoro possibile, considerato che Delphi non ha titolo per beneficiare autonomamente di fondi pubblici.
Dal WSJ Online
FEBRUARY 9, 2009 GM in Talks to Take Back Part of Delphi
By JEFFREY MCCRACKEN and JOHN D. STOLL
General Motors Corp. is in talks to take back large portions of Delphi Corp., the parts supplier spun off by the auto maker a decade ago, people involved in the negotiations said. The move is part of a strategy to qualify for additional government loans.
GM also is expected to pursue the closure of more auto-assembly plants beyond the nine shutdowns it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said.
GM has seen sales fall further than expected since it submitted a plan to Congress in December that said it will shrink to as few as 65,000 employees from 96,000 and cut its plants to 38 from 47 in North America in 2012. The deepening woes are putting pressure on GM to absorb the crucial auto-parts plants, even as it pares its car-making operations.
GM executives have been in negotiations over the Delphi plants since December.
Delphi and its lenders have asked for at least $2 billion, according to people briefed on the talks. But GM hopes to pay little or nothing because of previous agreements with Delphi -- and because of the plight the auto-parts maker finds itself in. At the heart of the talks: up to five Delphi plants that produce exclusive parts for GM, including steering systems, radios and air conditioners for models such as the Cadillac CTS and Chevrolet Silverado
The Delphi discussions are part of GM's strategy to line up additional bailout funds from the U.S. government, which has already committed $13.4 billion to the car company. Delphi, based in Troy, Mich., has been under bankruptcy protection for 40 months and has been an enormous cash drain on GM, which long has subsidized its operations under obligations stemming from the creation of the auto-parts maker.
Several major auto suppliers, some as big as Delphi, have said the entire U.S. supply chain needs several billion dollars in immediate aid in order to avoid collapse. But few of them hold the sway Delphi does, and without a relatively strong balance sheet, many of those suppliers may not survive the current downturn in the global auto industry.
As a separate company from GM, Delphi isn't eligible for the government's auto-bailout aid at this point. In assuming control of some of Delphi's operations -- representing up to 20% of Delphi's total sales -- GM would be taking a calculated bet it can creatively pry more support from the government.
As long as GM owes the government money, all its transactions over $100 million are subject to approval by the Treasury Department, which oversees loans to the auto makers. As it reviews a proposal for GM to absorb part of Delphi, the Treasury could borrow from the approach Washington took on the financial-sector meltdown last fall, seeing value in the consolidation of otherwise-failed businesses.
A GM spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
"GM has been constructively engaged with us about our restructuring for some time," said a Delphi spokesman. "We are currently trying to deal with these huge production declines."
The plan represents an unraveling of the business model pursued by GM in the 1990s, when it tried to outsource the production of many of its auto parts. Auto-parts maker Delphi was created from former GM components operations across North America and Europe.
"It's fair to ask the question of why the taxpayer could be stuck with the problem of bailing out GM's business model," said a banker who has done extensive work with GM and Delphi but isn't involved in the current negotiations.
The Delphi plans are likely to be part of the viability proposal GM will present to the Treasury by Feb. 17. They will be subject to approval by President Barack Obama's yet-to-be named car czar, who will administer the government's auto-industry bailout.
GM will have to gain support from Delphi's creditors, which blame the auto maker for many of Delphi's problems and already are demanding a large one-time payment from GM for the plants. This negotiation could prove the most difficult, as Delphi creditors stand to lose substantial amounts amid the historic downturn in automobile production.
GM and other U.S. auto makers are making cuts to get smaller, including moves to trim the amount of suppliers they do business with. But Delphi holds significant influence among GM's thousands of parts makers, supplying $1,250 of parts on each vehicle the auto maker builds in North America.
Ford Motor Co.'s relationship with Visteon Corp., spun off from Ford in 2000, is similar to the GM-Delphi tie. In 2005, with Visteon on the brink of bankruptcy, Ford took back several parts plants it saw as essential to vehicle-making operations.
Since the federal bailout nearly two months ago, conditions have worsened. GM's January sales fell 49%, forcing the auto maker to cut production in half.
"GM could say to the federal government we need this much and that amount will incorporate what it needs for these five Delphi plants," said a person familiar with the talks that involve GM, Delphi and Delphi's lenders.
Delphi's current losses would be deeper if GM didn't already subsidize hundreds of millions in Delphi's annual labor expenses and other operations. Since 2005, GM has poured in $11.7 billion to help sustain the company.
The plants under discussion generally employ United Auto Workers, and are at the heart of what binds GM so tightly to Delphi's bankruptcy process. The factories were transferred to a newly formed Delphi in 1999 under the belief that a standalone parts maker could better pursue new business with other auto makers around the world while still having strong ties to GM.
It is not clear how much GM would need to pay for the plants, located in the likes of Lockport, N.Y., Kokomo, Ind., and Saginaw, Mich. GM wants to pay nothing, arguing it would benefit Delphi and its lenders to get rid of them. In some cases, GM already has an option to buy back Delphi plants at a relatively low price.
After Delphi's well over three years in bankruptcy court, even GM has conceded in federal filings that Delphi is unlikely to emerge in the "near term." The primary reason: Delphi hasn't been able to arrange the financing necessary to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings. As the prospect for GM grows more uncertain with the day, banks are increasingly skittish about doing business with a parts firm so closely dependent on the auto maker for revenue. Delphi and its lenders believe it could make a better business case to investors if it had less GM business and more reliance on foreign auto makers such as Volkswagen AG and Renault-Nissan.
Delphi had sales through the first nine months of $14.9 billion, about 20%, or $4.5 billion, with GM. Roughly 21% of those sales, or about $3.1 billion, came from Delphi's U.S. plants that do nearly all of their business with GM.
Delphi doesn't disclose profits by geography, but is believed to at least break even outside North America, with its European and Asian operations. In 2007, it had an overall loss of $3.5 billion on sales of $22.3 billion. Roughly $10.3 billion of those sales came from outside North America
