Archive - Mar 2009

Total car sales down to 58,813 from 107,592. Hilariously the company is banging the table and claims its sales forecast will be met... GM sees its Q2 2009 production at 550,000 vehicles, a 34% cut. It is odd that the company will be making any cars at all when it still has 781,000 vehicles in inventory at the end of February.

General Growth Properties, which is currently in defaults on numerous loans and is at the mercy of its lenders, has received bids of almost $400 million for mall properties including Faneuil Hall and South Street Seaport reports Bloomberg.

In line with apocalyptic expectations and with a roughly 9.5 million SAAR, Ford reports car and truck sales down to 99,400 from 192,799 a year ago. "Industry sales at these levels make it more challenging for GM a Chrysler to become profitable and pay back $17.4 billion in U.S. loans." At the end of February, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury inventories totaled 405,000 units. Inventories are 32 percent lower than a year ago. Ken Czubay, VP of sales and marketing says:

In line with apocalyptic expectations and with a roughly 9.5 million SAAR, Ford reports car and truck sales down to 99,400 from 192,799 a year ago. "Industry sales at these levels make it more challenging for GM a Chrysler to become profitable and pay back $17.4 billion in U.S. loans." At the end of February, Ford, Lincoln and Mercury inventories totaled 405,000 units. Inventories are 32 percent lower than a year ago. Ken Czubay, VP of sales and marketing says:

Pershing's option debacle in TGT is reaching fever pitch. PSIV's drop in February was 3 times the drop in Target shares, according to an emailed statement to the few left investors in the fund. This follows PSIV's 40.1% drop in January. As we wrote, Ackman will allow Target fund redemptions in March, and put in some of his personal wealth in the fund. Since inception, PSIV is down 93%!

Granted AAPL has 0 debt compared to GE's $500 + billion. Nonetheless, the snapback in tech is sure to be vicious once funds have to sell the only performing sector to fund humongous margin calls.

Canadian door manufacturer Masonite, which in 2005 was acquired by KKR for $2.5 billion, has prenegotiated the terms of its upcoming bankruptcy with its lenders. The company which breached covenants as long ago as middle of 2008 has long been expected to file for chapter 11.

Prepare for some extra taxpayer backstopped leverage... 10 to 1 leverage to be exact... Somehow the TALF is supposed to become the securitization vehicle (as securitizations as a product have become extinct) of the government backstopping investments in everything from student loans to CMBS... Of course, seeing what the market reaction has been on every incremental governmental chef being appointed to the indigestible feast that is U.S. economy, this should firmly drop us to closer to a 5 handle soon.

It's like clockwork: after every major selloff, the BWICs emerge, as yet another small credit fund implodes and its collateral is seized by prime brokers. The latest is a $118 million loan BWIC by a seller whose "identity is to remain anonymous" (identity probably wasn't so anonymous when the fund was making nice levered returns in 2006 when every fool was greater and a chimp with a TRS line would be living in the TimeWarner penthouse) and a March 4 deadline for bids.

After the tapping of its revolver which we discussed, and the credit draws in turn by its boss Kirk, MGM Mirage, which even drew the ire of slow bus kid on the block Moody's, now the Las Vegas sun is picking up on the theme of the casino operator's upcoming cash crunch.

• Former LTCM trader Matt Zames generates most of $5 billion JPM profit via derivative trading (Bloomberg)
• As Hank Greenberg sues AIG, questions emerge if he created the financial singularity (Reuters)
• Daimler has uphill battle as it faces $9 billion of debt maturities in 2009 (Bloomberg)
• Ken Lewis
  

• The upcoming double-dip recession (Reuters)
• KKR's Masonite latest LBO bankruptcy casualty (WSJ)
• Populist anger shifts to small bank heads: next up on the guillotine Bruce Wasserstein (Huffington)
• More tinkering by Obama: Bad Bank plan next up on the drawing board (

Courtesy of Goldman.