【英语科技】IPO在即 通用汽车价值几何

General Motors Co. has made progress tidying up its balance sheet ahead of a planned initial public stock offering next month, but there's still a big question it has to answer for potential investors: Is GM fixed?

The auto maker said Thursday that it will return another $2.1 billion of the nearly $50 billion in bailout funds it got from U.S. taxpayers. The repayment was one of a series of moves GM, which is majority owned by the federal government, announced to reduce its liabilities and show financial strength ahead of the IPO.

GM said it will repay the money by buying back 83.9 million preferred shares owned by the U.S. Treasury. In a separate move, it said it will immediately pay $2.8 billion to reduce the amount it owes to a trust fund that covers the cost of health care for retired workers.

After the IPO, the auto maker plans to cut its liabilities further by contributing $4 billion in cash and $2 billion in stock to employee pension funds.

All told, the moves will use $10.9 billion, but will save about $500 million a year in interest payments. GM will be left with $24 billion in liquidity, including a backup $5 billion revolving credit line, which company executives believe is enough to keep it moving forward, especially now that it is making money again.

The stock buyback from the Treasury is significant because the Obama administration is seeking to recoup the entire $49.5 billion that taxpayers poured into GM, starting in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. With Thursday's deal, GM will have returned about $9.5 billion of that money, through loan repayments, interest charges and dividends, the Treasury said.

During a stay in bankruptcy court last year, GM slashed its debt and costs, halved the number of brands it sells and swept out its entrenched leadership in favor of aggressive newcomers.

Bolstered by a new, lower-cost union contract, some strong-selling models and an improving economy, GM reported a $2.2 billion profit for this year's first half, a sharp turnaround after losing nearly $90 billion between 2005 and its bankruptcy filing in June 2009. GM's U.S. sales rose 6.8% in the first nine months of 2010.

But, as for whether GM is fixed, the answer is yes--but not completely. Many problems linger.

GM's U.S. market share slipped 2.8 percentage points this year through September as overall car sales recovered. One reason is the company still doesn't make enough models that appeal to a broad spectrum of Americans, particularly young, urban drivers and those on both coasts.

GM faces intense competition from a resurgent Ford Motor Co. and newer rivals such as Korea's Hyundai Motor Co., as well as Toyota Motor Corp., which remains a formidable competitor despite its safety recalls. In Europe, GM has racked up years of losses at its Adam Opel GmbH unit.

While bankruptcy did GM much good, it also left the company with a gap in its product pipeline because development of some models was frozen for months as the company slid toward Chapter 11.

GM also has an image problem. Its bailout came as anti-government sentiment was rising, and many consumers and lawmakers see GM as 'Government Motors' because of the Treasury's 61% stake in the company.

Here's a look at what GM has fixed--and what remains to be done.

What's Fixed

Bankruptcy finally enabled GM to shrink its North American operations to fit a smaller and more competitive market. It abandoned 14 of its 47 North American plants, shut down its slow-selling Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn brands, and sold Saab, allowing it to put more resources into Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.

Perhaps the biggest achievement of GM's 41-day stay in bankruptcy court is its new balance sheet. After the measures outlined on Thursday, GM has just $8.2 billion in debt, down from $45.9 billion before it filed for court protection. GM also has $24 billion in cash, $4 billion more than at the end of 2009.

A big part of the debt reduction came from a deal with the United Auto Workers. GM was obligated to pay billions of dollars into a trust fund to cover health care for retired union workers. Instead of paying in cash, GM won union approval to put stock into the trust, which is now GM's second-largest shareholder, with a 17.5% stake.

The cost reductions are boosting the bottom line. In the second quarter, GM made $2,009 on every vehicle it produced in North America. In the three months before it went into Chapter 11, GM lost $4,081 on every car or truck it made in the region.

That the company can make money with U.S. car sales at around 10.5 million a year--compared with 16 million annually earlier this decade--means it should profit handsomely when sales recover further.

For years, GM hurt itself by running too many plants and making more cars than consumers cared to buy. But after closing so many plants, GM has gotten supply in line with demand, and its plants are more productive. In the second quarter, GM's North American factories operated at 93% of capacity, up from 40% a year earlier.

Now some new models are selling at higher prices. The recently redesigned Buick LaCrosse sedan typically sells for $30,000 to $40,000, according to dealers--about $7,000 more than the old version.

In China, GM's joint ventures are booming and it is now the top-selling foreign brand, having overtaken Volkswagen AG. This year, for the first time, GM is selling more vehicles in China than in the U.S.

GM's progress has come under a new board and management team. In the past, GM tended to deliberate endlessly over even minor decisions, delaying tough action.

During GM's bankruptcy, the Treasury stocked the GM board with industry outsiders. Edward E. Whitacre Jr., a no-nonsense Texan who spent most of his career building SBC Communications Inc. into a telecommunications giant, was named chairman. Another telecom deal maker, Daniel F. Akerson, also joined the board.

In December 2009, Mr. Whitacre wanted faster change and took the chief executive post himself, ousting GM veteran Frederick 'Fritz' Henderson. The chairman shook up other management as well.

What Needs Work

Though GM is making money and has a clean balance sheet, one of its trouble spots is pensions for its retired workers. The company has more than $27 billion in outstanding pension obligations. Of that, payments totaling $10 billion are due in 2014 and 2015. Making such payments could hamper GM's ability to develop new models and modernize operations.

In Europe, GM's is closing an Opel plant in Belgium as part of a turnaround plan, but also needs to raise market share--a difficult feat in the competitive European market. In private, GM's advisers and some board members acknowledge getting Opel to break even may be the best the company can do.

Questions still hover over GM's executive suite. Mr. Akerson, now CEO, has been at the helm fewer than 60 days, and has little experience running a large manufacturing company.

Speaking to reporters in September, he conceded that the company has a long way to go. 'The GM we know today will not be the GM we see five to 10 years from now,' he said.

While GM's U.S. sales rose 6.8% in the first nine months of the year, its increase has been fueled by higher sales to rental-car companies and other 'fleet' customers. Sales to individual buyers--which generally are more profitable and a truer measure of a car maker's ability to win customers--were down about 2%, according to people familiar with the matter.

In an effort to spark enthusiasm for the Chevrolet brand--which now accounts for more than two-thirds of its sales--GM this week announced plans to blanket the airwaves with a new, Americana-themed ad campaign.

Changing consumer perceptions is easier if an auto maker launches new, head-turning models. GM has that in the form of the Chevrolet Volt, the battery-powered car due in December, and some new small cars, including compacts for Buick and Cadillac.

Beyond that, GM has some holes in its lineup. Bankruptcy forced it to freeze development of several vehicle lines, including a new generation of full-size pickups and sport-utility vehicles. That means GM won't be able to wow potential investors by pointing to a string of high-profit models waiting in the wings. GM won't have new trucks to offer until at least 2013, though it could update current models.

Privately, GM executives acknowledge weakness in the company's product line that could hurt its competitiveness over the next few years.

GM has committed almost $1 billion to revamp its big trucks and SUVs and tripled the size of its truck-design studio to be able to develop SUVs alongside pickups, rather than separately. 'We are moving as fast as we can,' said GM's design chief, Ed Welburn, in an interview. 'But you can only speed things up so much.'

通用汽车公司(General Motors Co.)在拟于11月进行的首次公开募股(IPO)之前，已经把资产负债表收拾出一番模样了，不过它仍然有一个需要向潜在投资者们做出回答的重要问题：通用汽车的问题都解决了吗？

Associated Press通用汽车新任CEO Daniel Akerson 。这家汽车生产商10月28日说，它将再次偿还21亿美元的救助资金，它过去从美国纳税人那里获得了近500亿美元的救助资金。此次偿还是通用汽车在IPO之前宣布的削减债务、体现财务实力的系列举动之一。目前该公司的大部分股权仍为美国联邦政府持有。

通用汽车说，将通过回购美国财政部持有的8390万股优先股来偿还资金。此外，它说它很快将支付28亿美元用以减小对一家信托基金的欠债规模，该基金为退休工人提供医疗保健费用。

IPO之后，通用汽车计划进一步削减债务，向员工退休基金注入40亿美元的现金和20亿美元的股票。

这些举措总共将耗费109亿美元，但每年却可以节省大约5亿美元的利息支出。通用汽车将剩下240亿美元的流动资金，包括作为储备资金的50亿美元循环信贷额度，而公司管理人员认为这已足够让通用汽车正常运转，尤其是现在它又恢复盈利了。

从财政部回购股票具有不同寻常的意义，因为奥巴马(Obama)政府正寻求偿还纳税人从小布什政府(George W. Bush)后期就开始向通用汽车投入的全部495亿美元的资金。财政部说，周四再次偿债后，通用汽车通过偿还贷款、利息收费和派息的途径将已偿还了495亿美元中的 95亿美元左右。

在去年身处破产边缘期间，通用汽车对债务和成本进行了大力度的裁减，剥离了它所销售的一半品牌，并且更换了长久把持着公司的管理层，迎来了积极进取的新人。

得益于与工会达成的成本更低的新合同、一些销量强劲的品牌以及改善中的经济形势，通用汽车今年上半年实现了22亿美元的利润，与2005年至2009年6月递交破产申请期间将近900亿美元的亏损相比，它打了一场漂亮的翻身战。2010年前九个月，该公司在美国市场的销量增加了6.8%。

然而，至于通用汽车的问题是否已经解决好，答案是肯定的──但没有完全解决。许多问题依然存在。

随着整体汽车销售情况的复苏，通用汽车今年在美国的市场份额到九月底时下滑了2.8个百分点。一个原因是该公司仍未推出足够数量的车型来吸引不同阶层的美国人，尤其是年轻的城市驾车者和美国东西海岸的消费者。

通用汽车面临着激烈的竞争，这种竞争既来自重新恢复活力的福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)，也来自韩国现代汽车(Hyundai Motor Co.)这样的后起之秀，还有丰田汽车(Toyota Motor Corp.)，尽管它因安全问题出现了召回，但依然是一个不可小觑的的竞争对手。在欧洲，通用汽车的欧宝(Adam Opel GmbH)子公司已经亏损了数年。

破产保护在给通用汽车带来众多好处的同时，也使它的产品线出现了裂缝，因为在通用汽车滑向破产保护之际，一些车型的研发工作停止了好几个月。

通用汽车还有一个形象问题。拯救通用汽车的时候正逢反政府情绪高涨，而鉴于财政部在该公司中持有61%的股权，因此许多消费者和议员将通用汽车的英文名General Motors解释为Government Motors，意味政府汽车。

下面来看看通用汽车已经解决好的问题，以及哪些是仍待解决的。

已得到解决的问题

破产保护最终使得通用汽车能够缩减北美业务，以适应一个更小也更具竞争性的市场。它剥离了47家北美工厂中的14家，停止了销售状况疲软的悍马(Hummer)、庞蒂亚克(Pontiac)和土星(Saturn)品牌的生产，还出售了萨博(Saab)，这些“瘦身”举措使它能够将更多资源整合到雪佛兰(Chevrolet)、凯迪拉克(Cadillac)、别克(Buick)和GMC中。

也许通用汽车在破产保护程序中经历的41天所取得的最大成就是它有了一份崭新的资产负债表。在完成周四公布的偿债计划后，通用汽车的负债规模仅为82亿美元，低于它在申请破产保护之前的459亿美元。该公司还拥有240亿美元的现金，这比2009年底时的水平多出了40亿美元。

其削减的债务中有一大部分来自于同全美汽车工人联合会(United Auto Workers)达成的一项交易。通用汽车有义务向一家信托基金注入数十亿美元，以支付退休工会工人的医疗保健费用。如今，通用汽车获得这家工会组织的许可，不必支付现金，而是向信托基金提供股票，该基金目前已是通用汽车的第二大股东，持有其17.5%的股权。

成本的裁减提振了盈利能力。通用汽车第二季度在北美生产的每辆汽车都能挣得2,009美元。而在它进入破产保护之前的三个月中，它在该地区每生产一辆轿车或卡车就要赔上4,081美元。

现在通用汽车在美国一年销售约1,050万辆汽车就可以挣钱，而前几年每年要销售1,600万辆才能盈利。这意味着，当销量进一步反弹时，应该就会获得可观的利润。

多年来，通用汽车因为运营工厂过多、生产汽车过多，超出了消费者愿意购买的数量，反倒伤及自身。但在关闭如此多的工厂之后，通用汽车实现了供求平衡，工厂效率也提高了。北美工厂第二季度的产能利用率是93%，而去年同期只有40%。

现在一些新车卖出了更高的价格。据经销商说，经过最近重新设计的别克君越(Buick LaCrosse)轿车，售价一般在3万美元到4万美元，比老款贵了大约7,000美元。

在中国，通用汽车的合资公司生意兴隆，它现在已经超过大众(Volkswagen AG)成为最畅销的外国品牌。通用汽车在中国的销量今年首度超过了在美国的销量。

通用汽车的进步，是在一个新的董事会和管理团队的带领下取得的。在过去，哪怕是无关紧要的决定它往往也要无休止地琢磨，所以迟迟不能采取强有力的行动。

破产期间，美国财政部将行业外部人士安插进了通用汽车的董事会。有着务实作风的得克萨斯人惠塔克(Edward E. Whitacre Jr.)被任命为董事长；他的大部分职业生涯都在西南贝尔(SBC Communications Inc.)度过，把这家公司打造成了通信业界的巨头。另外一位电信业并购撮合者阿克森(Daniel F. Akerson)也进入了董事会。

2009年12月，惠塔克希望加快改革，于是自己担任了首席执行长一职，而将通用汽车元老韩德胜(Frederick "Fritz" Henderson)扫地出门。他还改组了管理层的其他职位。

革命尚未成功

虽然通用汽车正在盈利，并且有一张干净的资产负债表，但它还有诸多容易出现问题的地方，其中一个就是退休工人的养老金。通用汽车尚有超过270亿美元的退休金未支付，其中有100亿美元的额度是定在2014年和2015年偿付。支付这样一些款项有可能束缚通用汽车开发新车、实现作业现代化的能力。

在欧洲，根据一项扭亏为盈计划，通用汽车即将关闭一处位于比利时、生产欧宝(Opel)品牌汽车的工厂，同时它也需要提高市场份额──在竞争激烈的欧洲市场，这是一种难以实现的伟业。通用汽车的咨询师和部分董事在私下场合承认，公司最多或许也只能够让欧宝不赚不赔。

首席执行长的人选仍然受到怀疑。现在已担任CEO的阿克森上任还不到60天，并且基本上没有运营大型制造企业的经验。

9月份对媒体发言时，他承认公司还有很长的路要走。他说，我们今天所认识的通用汽车不会是我们五到10年过后见到的通用汽车。

虽然今年前九个月的美国销量增长了6.8%，但这个增长是汽车租赁公司和其他“车队”型客户购买量增加带动的。通常来讲，面向个人的销售利润更高，并且能够更加真实地反映一家汽车生产商争取客户的能力。据一位知情人士说，通用汽车在这方面的销量下降了2%左右。

雪佛兰(Chevrolet)目前在通用汽车总销量中占据超过三分之二的份额。通用汽车本周宣布，为点燃人们对这个品牌的热情，它将发起一场以美国特色为主题的广告战，在电台电视台密集播出。

如果汽车生产商推出让人眼前一亮的新车，那么改变消费者态度就会更加容易。通用汽车在这方面的相关举措就是计划于12月推出的电池驱动汽车雪佛兰Volt，以及一些新型小排量汽车，包括别克和凯迪拉克(Cadillac)品牌的紧凑车型。

除此以外，通用汽车的产品线存在一些问题。由于破产，它不得不冻结多个产品线的开发工作，比如一个新一代全尺寸皮卡和SUV系列。这意味着通用汽车将无法用一系列万事俱备的高利润车型让潜在的投资者折服。通用汽车新卡车的推出最早也要到2013年，不过它可以更新时下的款式。

公司高管在私下场合承认公司的产品线存在弱点，可能损害它在未来几年的竞争力。

通用汽车已承诺投资接近10亿美元，用于更新大型卡车和SUV，并把卡车设计部门的规模扩大到原来的三倍，以便能够在开发皮卡的同时开发SUV，而不是分别开发。通用汽车设计负责人韦尔伯恩(Ed Welburn)接受采访说，我们正在以最快速度前进，但你只能把速度提高这么多。