TOP 100 RACING SITES
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| Matos has speedy Sunday; Andretti crashes in Indy 500 practice With so many veteran drivers trying to make it into the field for the Indianapolis 500 on the second day of qualifications, it ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Porsche Shares Up On Qatar Offer Shares of Porsche SE were on the rise on Monday, closing up more than 9%, after German new magazine Der Spiegel reported that Qatar had offered $9.7 billion for a stake in the German automaker that is reeling under a huge debt load and facing possible absorption by Volkswagen AG.Under terms of the deal reported, but not yet confirmed, The Qatar Investment Authority would buy a bit more than 25% of Porsche for $9.7 billion. Porsche’s market cap is a bit more than 8 billion euros. Qatar would also gain Porsche’s options on shares in Volkswagen, which would total about a 20%-25% stake if exercised.The significance of the pending deal with Qatar is that it will give the sovereign wealth fund a big block of voting shares in Porsche. Up to now, the voting shares have been controlled by the Porsche and Piech families.But Porsche has run into severe balance sheet problems after a derivative scheme hatched by Porsche went haywire last Fall when the global credit markets collapsed. The scheme was a financial device employed by Porsche to enable it to acquire most of Volkswagen’s shares not owned by the State of Lower Saxony. At present, Porsche owns 51% of VW, but the automaker was out to acquire 75%.The scheme tripled Porsche’s debt in the six months ending in January to above 12 billion euros. Some analysts have speculated that the debt amount is even higher.Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, and Porsche said in May that they were in talks on a possible combination into a single manufacturer of 10 automotive brands.The Piech and Porsche families who control the sports-car maker have scheduled a supervisory board meeting for July 23 to discuss the bids by the Qatari sovereign-wealth fund and Volkswagen.The dealings between Porsche and VW have played out in Germany like a soap opera. At the center of the storm is the clan rivalry between the Porsche and Piech families. Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche's supervisory board,is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the company's founder. Ferdinand Piech, chairman of VW’s supervisory board is also F. Porsche’s grandson.Piech is an interesting situation that would hardly be possible in the U.S. with its stricter corporate governance rules. Piech, because of the voting shares the Piech’s control, could block the investment by Qatar in Porsche. If he does so, VW would almost certainly have to absorb Porsche. But if VW does so, it also takes on Porsche’s huge debt load. He may want to block an outsider from having such a huge block of voting shares in his family business. But he would also be reluctant to saddle VW with more than $10 billion of new debt, and allow Qatar to acquire more than 20% of VW. rss.businessweek.com |
Sizzling at 1.5 miles, Briscoe feeling good heading to Japan The formula has put Ryan Briscoe atop the IndyCar Series, so he's confident it could put him over this weekend in Japan. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Plug-in Prius on sale in 2011 In less than two years, Toyota plans to sell a plug-in version of its popular Prius hybrid to consumers. The company will want to fend off challenges to its green crown, which will be aplenty by 2011. Nissan will be selling its Leaf electric car. General Motors will have the Volt, to name a couple of them. But will there be enough buyers for all of these high-tech rides? Toyota will start selling the Prius in test batches next year but will offer the car to consumers in 2011. The company expects to sell tens of thousands of the car. GM has similar ambitions for the Volt and Nissan expects the Leaf to garner a lot of interest. On one hand, Prius buyers have a lot more cash than people who typically buy $25,000 cars. The average Prius owner makes $84,000 a year and half of them earn more than $100,000 annually. On the other, advanced cars like plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles will be expensive. The National Research Council put out a report on Dec. 14 saying that plug-ins could be as much as $18,000 more than conventional car. If fuel stays under $4 a gallon in the U.S., car buyers won’t get a payback on the added cost, not even close. Of course, there will be plenty of buyers who want to be green, make a political statement or test out the latest technology. But it probably won’t be enough for every carmaker to hit their targets on sales of these advanced cars. What they really want to do is make their own statement. When these cars hit the market, every carmaker will be flogging their technology to make a case that they have the killer app. While all of them may be impressive, each will have short comings. The Volt may get the most pure electric range without needing to recharge, but it could cost more than a Prius plug-in. The Prius may have a price advantage, but won’t be as purely green as a Leaf. The Leaf won’t go farther than 100 miles without needing to recharge. The upshot: It will be a nasty sales battle and profits will be tough to come by. rss.businessweek.com |
NASCAR truck series returning to Darlington Raceway Darlington Raceway is hosting its first NASCAR truck race in six years. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |