汽车业八大失败并购案例

我们还是做朋友吧

    摩根士丹利公司（Morgan Stanley）的资深汽车分析师亚当•乔纳斯近日抛出一段高论，引发业界一阵喧哗。他建议，通用汽车（General Motors）应该改弦易辙，卖掉欧宝（Opel），而不要试图挽救它。他的理由是：这家公司会给通用汽车其他业务板块带来潜在亏损。在他看来，“欧洲汽车市场显著衰退，运营亏损不断增加，”因此他把欧宝称为“通用汽车长期财务健康和可持续发展能力最大的威胁”。

    如此壮士断腕必然代价不菲。乔纳斯估计，出售欧宝的现金成本将达到70亿美元到130亿美元，但他坚信，这一举动将使通用汽车的平均每股收益增长近1美元（或20%），最终将推动通用股价上涨超过50%。

    卖掉欧宝当然是一剂猛药，但其他汽车厂商在甩掉亏损业务后都实现了复苏。乔纳斯在报告里援引了两笔类似的交易，但实际上过去30年间这种案例已超过6件之多。下面就是这些案例的概貌。

雷诺-美国汽车公司

    美国汽车公司（AMC）的财务状况始终岌岌可危，而雷诺公司（Renault）作为这家公司的法资老板，在改变这一局面上一直无所作为。20世纪80年代中期，油价大幅走低，导致美国汽车公司的小型车一夜之间失去了市场。而曾经主管美国汽车公司、尔后担任雷诺总裁的乔治•贝斯在1986年遭暗杀后，雷诺就将美国汽车公司作价15亿美元卖给了克莱斯勒公司（Chrysler）。

结局

    这桩交易对克莱斯勒来说却是一笔天降横财。它充分发展了美国汽车公司的吉普（Jeep）车业务，把它打造成了一个巨大的赚钱机器。1999年，雷诺做了一项长期并购投资，收购了当时境况不佳的日产汽车（Nissan）36.8%的股份。此后，在首席执行官卡洛斯•戈恩的带领下，雷诺-日产合资公司开始了蒸蒸日上的发展历程。

宝马-罗孚集团

    1994年，英国航宇公司（British Aerospace）将其所持有的罗孚集团（Rover Group）80%的股权以13.5亿美元的价格卖给了宝马汽车（BMW）。当时宝马正在寻找一个相对低端的品牌充实其豪华性能车阵营。但是，尽管花了28亿美元的预算投资于新车型，宝马却从来没有真正扭转过罗孚低效过时的做法，以至于这一收购最终成了个无底洞。2000年，宝马将罗孚集团分拆后，将路虎（Land Rover）卖给了福特汽车（Ford），将罗孚汽车卖给了一个投资财团，仅保留了MINI这一品牌。

结局

    福特也无法让路虎重振雄风，只好在2008年将它卖给了印度的塔塔汽车公司（Tata Motors）。收购罗孚汽车的财团也没有起死回生的良方，只好在2005年停产了事。但MINI却成了宝马的一大摇钱树，MINI Cooper更是成了大名鼎鼎的高端小型车。在收购罗孚遭遇惨败后，宝马自己也经历了一次管理层的巨大动荡，但重出江湖后却比以前任何时候都所向披靡。乔纳斯特别提到，尽管宝马花了27亿美元才将罗孚清理出门户，但其股价却“随之打了个漂亮的翻身仗，一路飙升”。

福特-捷豹路虎

    1989年，福特花了24亿美元收购捷豹（Jaguar）；2000年，它花了30亿美元收购路虎，最后却将这两家英国公司以23亿美元的价格卖给了印度的塔塔汽车——还不到当初出价的一半。这两家公司表现如此不尽人意，以至于一位分析师嘲笑塔塔此举为“虚荣的一掷千金”。在福特治下的19年间，捷豹从来没有赚过一个子儿，而路虎似乎始终就无法造出一辆品质能配得上其高昂售价的车。

Let's just be friends

    Veteran Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas caused a recent stir when he suggested that General Motors reverse course and sell its Opel affiliate rather than try to save it. Reason: its potential damage to the rest of GM. Seeing what he described as "a significant deterioration in the European car market and widening operating losses," Jonas called Opel "the single biggest threat to GM's long term financial health and sustainability."

    Such an amputation would not come cheaply. Jonas figures that the cash cost of a separation would be $7 billion to $13 billion, but he believes that ultimately it would drive a more than 50% appreciation to GM's stock by driving earnings per share up nearly a dollar (or 20%).

    Selling Opel would be harsh medicine, but other automakers have prospered after dumping money-losing operations. Jonas cites two similar transactions in his report, but there have been a half dozen others in the past 30 years. Here's a look at how they turned out:

Renault-AMC

    AMC had always led a precarious financial existence, and Renault, its French owner, wasn't much help in changing that. When gas became cheap in the mid-1980s, the market moved away from AMC's small cars. After Renault chairman George Besse, who had championed AMC, was assassinated in 1986, Renault sold it to Chrysler for $1.5 billion.

Bottom Line

    The deal produced a windfall for Chrysler, which leveraged AMC's Jeep business into a huge moneymaker. Renault made a longer-lasting acquisition in 1999 when it acquired 36.8% of then-struggling Nissan. The Renault-Nissan alliance has mostly thrived since then under CEO Carlos Ghosn.

BMW-Rover Group

    In 1994, British Aerospace sold its 80% majority share in Rover Group for $1.35 billion to BMW, which was looking for a lower-end brand to complement its luxury performance cars. But despite budgeting $2.8 billion to invest in new models, it never fully confronted Rover's inefficient and antiquated practices, and the acquisition turned into a sinkhole. In 2000, BMW broke up the group. It sold Land Rover to Ford and Rover cars to an investor consortium and decided to keep MINI for itself.

Bottom Line

    Ford struggled with Land Rover before selling it to Tata Motors of India in 2008. The Rover Car consortium failed and production ceased in 2005. But MINI has been a boon for BMW with its MINI Cooper creating what has become known as the premium small segment. BMW itself went through a management upheaval after the Rover fiasco but emerged stronger than ever. Analyst Jonas notes that while it cost BMW $2.7 billion to exit Rover, its stock "subsequently appreciated handsomely."

Ford-Jaguar Land Rover

    Having acquired Jaguar in 1989 for $2.4 billion and Land Rover in 2000 for $3 billion, Ford sold the two U.K. companies to India's Tata Motors for $2.3 billion -- less than half of what it had paid for them. The two companies were performing so poorly that one analyst derided Tata's move as "a vanity purchase." Jaguar never made a nickel in 19 years of Ford's ownership, while Land Rover seemed incapable of building vehicles of a quality commensurate with its upscale prices.