Autos

Corona Capital: Wall Street blues, Grocers

4 June 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Pandemic pain is filtering through to investment bankers, and grocers’ viral boost passes its sell-by date.

Germany’s car bonus scheme is only half the trip

1 June 2020

Chancellor Angela Merkel is mooting 5 bln euros in auto subsidies. A similar plan saved jobs at Volkswagen and Daimler in 2009. But the incentives would cover 2 mln vehicles – barely half last year’s sales. If the pandemic has permanently dented demand, a bigger boost is needed.

German carmakers step on Chinese electric pedal

29 May 2020

VW is taking big stakes in two Chinese EV firms, while Daimler may invest in battery-maker Farasis Energy’s $480 mln IPO. Demand remains tepid, oil is too cheap, and the targets look richly priced. But these deals lock in supply, and position both to compete with Tesla in China.

Corona Capital: Saving/not spending, Pandemic Pig

29 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: what to make of falling spending and the growing taste for meat alternatives.

Amazon steers towards self-driving leverage

28 May 2020

Jeff Bezos’s $1.2 trln behemoth is one of the obvious big buyers of autonomous vehicles. Acquiring startup Zoox would give it an even bigger say in how the technology gets rolled out. That would also help deepen its customers’ dependence on Amazon’s fast and cheap shipping.

Renault-Nissan repair job needs governance fix

27 May 2020

The French carmaker and its Japanese partner are merging production in a bid to revive their grim alliance. Yet the union’s uneven power split is a brake on integration. Luckily for incoming Renault CEO Luca de Meo there’s a way to mend relations, without losing control.

Hertz is a study in financial comorbidities

26 May 2020

The car-hire company’s heavy debts crushed it when Covid-19 curtailed travel. Other businesses with overengineered balance sheets have similarly come unstuck. It’s not that Hertz could have seen this coming – but the system has quickly switched to favoring flexibility over risk.

A Ford-VW tie-up would solve a ton of problems

22 May 2020

The two rivals’ souped-up electric and autonomous collaboration won’t solve their respective geographic weaknesses. A merger would. It’d also create value and give Ford’s underperforming boss a graceful exit. The biggest sticking point is the firms’ convoluted ownership.

Corona Capital: Tech laggards, MAC fight

22 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Troubled firms HPE, Dell and IBM are facing even more challenges while chipmaker Nvidia gathers strength. Plus: A judge denied to fast-track payment firm Wex’s MAC fight.

Corona Capital: China on Wall Street, Wind power

20 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. senators want Chinese firms to share their audited accounts – or face being kicked off American stock exchanges. Plus: why wind energy is the key to an economic and social, as well as environmental, resurgence.

Carmakers’ green future gets revved up by Covid-19

18 May 2020

The virus has added pollution fears to climate-change concerns. That should be a boon for electric vehicles when production restarts. But cheap oil makes gas guzzlers look even more economical. State incentives like trading in clunkers for EV discounts would help tip the balance.

Tesla pits electric-power hope against experience

14 May 2020

A big battery upgrade could soon make Model 3s as cheap as gas guzzlers, Reuters reports. That’d be a big leap ahead for electric vehicles and could also shake up utilities. But the infrastructure needs work. And boss Elon Musk has a history of overpromising and underdelivering.

Corona Capital: Air travel, Starbucks

14 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Airlines’ experienced hands offer warning; Starbucks begins dance with landlords.

Corona Capital: Cruise ships, China/U.S. friction

13 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Royal Caribbean raises and dreams of a time when cruise ships come back into favor, while a U.S. pension fund decides to give Chinese stocks a miss.

Luckin pileup crashes into China’s car lot

8 May 2020

The coffee chain scandal hit shares in Car Inc, a rental firm chaired by Luckin founder Lu Zhengyao. Lu also leads Ucar, whose banks could dump a slug of Car Inc pledged as collateral, triggering a change of control and dragging in Warburg Pincus. It’s a lesson in key-man risk.

Carmakers put V-shaped recovery hopes to the test

6 May 2020

GM, Fiat Chrysler and Ford hope to restart U.S. production soon. Analysts expect new-car sales to return quickly. But the poor financial health of customers and industries like construction and energy will sap demand. That could turn a V into a U.

Pandemic stalls Ferrari’s Formula 1 turboboost

4 May 2020

Bans on mass events are disrupting this year’s racing season. That’s bad for the luxury carmaker, which in 2019 made 14% of its revenue from Grand Prix events and branding. While the core auto business should hold up, a lack of action on the tracks leaves growth in the slow lane.

Corona Capital: Baseball and robo-taxis

4 May 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout. Taiwan hits on a way to please baseball fans, with the help of some people-shaped placards. Meanwhile, chipmaker Intel finds a deal amid a crisis.

Tesla’s Elon Musk turns from prey to predator

30 April 2020

The electric-car maker’s boss lashed out at state-imposed “fascist” lockdowns. Truth is, Tesla’s having a good crisis. Its $160 bln valuation bests all but Toyota. Rather than kvetching, Musk could use this firepower to seize the moment and expand global manufacturing capacity.

Beware hidden hazards in Nio’s China rescue route

29 April 2020

The electric-car maker secured a $1 bln lifeline from state-backed funds. Existing shareholders get diluted in a deal that injects mainland assets into a new entity, but it’s a clever way to tap local financing. Two distinct sets of investors may challenge boss William Li.