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Strategies & Market Trends : Graham and Doddsville -- Value Investing In The New Era -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (1157)	2/3/1999 12:17:00 AM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

INTERVIEW-GM bullish about Asia auto market By Angela Tan SINGAPORE, Feb 2 (Reuters) - General Motors Inc (GM) is very bullish about the Asia Pacific and expects the region's automobile sales to return to pre-crisis levels by end 2000 to early 2001, the group's Asia Pacific President said on Tuesday. "We are very bullish on the Asia Pacific region," Rudolph Schlais told Reuters. "There are signs that are saying very positive things that things are turning up...By approximately the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001, it will be close to 1996 sales," he said. Fuelling his bullishness were the region's three billion people, high savings rate and emerging middle-class. "I strongly believe what I said about all the factors still being there for the region to grow rapidly in the auto business." "We are progressing. We are spending investments in this region," he said. GM's new US$1.5 billion manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China will produce its first car by the end of December and its Thailand plant would start production by the second quarter of 2000, he said. Schlais shrugged off over-capacity concerns in the region. "(You've) got to look around and see what happens when you come back to 1996 sales levels. The forecast indicates about eight million additional units from 12 million to 20 million." "Let's assume we are off 50 percent, there is still four million. There isn't that type of capacity around the market place," he said. Schlais said the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies already account for almost half of the world's automotive exports. Almost 60 percent of the world's motor vehicle sales and over 60 percent of motor vehicle production take place in the APEC economies, he said. "Despite the crisis, over the next 10 years, vehicle sales in the Asia Pacific region will grow by more than that of Europe and North America combined," he said. Schlais said GM was revising its strategy for the region in an effort to combat existing barriers to entry imposed by some countries. "We are revising some of our strategies...So when you have to revise your strategies, what it basically says is that you (would) probably be producing smaller volumes in some countries until the barriers change," he said. APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. Peru, Russia and Vietnam start full participation in the group this year. Schlais was attending the launch of APEC Automotive Dialogue, which aims to promote auto industry growth in the region. The first dialogue is scheduled to be held in July in Bali, Indonesia, newly-appointed Chairman Ian Grigg told a news conference earlier.

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (1157)	2/4/1999 8:47:00 PM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1722

GM aims for 12 pct Euro market share -papers BRUSSELS, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Carmaker General Motors Corp aims to increase its 1999 market share in Europe to 12 percent from 10.6 percent, GM's Europe president was quoted on Thursday as saying. "We hope to rise to 12 percent," Michael Burns told Belgian newspapers. He said GM was counting on its niche models and the new Astra model which competes with Volkswagen's Golf. "The Astra represents 35 to 40 percent of the total sales volume of (GM's German subsidiary, Adam Opel AG)," he was quoted as saying. "It even overtook the Golf in the last quarter of 1998." Burns added he was not really worried by the recently-announced acquisition of Swedish carmaker Volvo by GM's U.S. rival Ford . "Via our 50 percent in Saab, we are active in the same segment as Volvo and on the same markets," Burns said. "It is because of the lack of this complementarity that we were not interested in Volvo." Asked by La Libre Belgique which other carmakers might be of interest to GM, Burns said: "In a speculative way, I'd mention the BMW group . They operate in the same superior luxury segment in which we are weaker. "(BMW) would be the ideal partner, allowing us to increase our presence on the market just above Saab's," he said. Burns added in L'Echo newspaper that GM aimed to study in the next two years "the issue of an increase of our stake in Saab." ((Bert Lauwers, Brussels newsroom +32 2 287 6815, fax +32 2 230 7710, bert.lauwers@reuters.com))