Ford Plans $18 Billion in Debt, Some Backed by Plants

[DanielXR8]

Ford Plans $18 Billion in Debt, Some Backed by Plants

Long article so here is the link:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

My summary of the article is that Ford need the $18 billion to pay the bills for plant closures and payouts to soon to be ex employees in the US. The company has over $154 billion in debt and can't get a loan anymore, without offering security in the form of profitable assets and operations incase they default. The article says they have been forced to pledge a lot of profitable assets to secure the loan like Ford Credit and Volvo. One analyst says he is not sure this is enough money to get Ford out of trouble, but should buy them some time.

Company shares dropped 2.6% on the news and their rating is likely to drop as they now have fewer assets to secure the company if they need to ever call bankruptcy. They are already rated a bad investment.

This is not good people. Locally I wouldnt be expecting any revolutionary things from Ford Aus after the Orion Falcon, as it reads to me that there won't be any cash for anything much then the essentials in any Ford operations for a long time. Expect reskinning and tweaking of platforms to get as much cash out of every investment as they can.

Dan