1.GENERAL MOTORS: General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra told investors on Wednesday that the automaker plans to double revenue by 2030, expanding profits from combustion vehicles even as it rolls out new electric vehicles and new digitally powered services to catch up with Tesla Inc.
GM said if it succeeds, annual revenue by 2030 would be about $280 billion, and the automaker would be the leader in U.S. electric vehicle sales. Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said GM expects pre-tax profit margins of 12 to 14%, which could beat current levels. That would imply annual pre-tax profits of as much as $39 billion.
Jacobson said GM can fund $9 billion to $10 billion in annual capital spending for electric vehicles and other initiatives while returning money to shareholders.
“This won’t all happen at once,” Jacobson said.
GM projects its combustion vehicle business can grow even as annual electric vehicle revenues rise to $90 billion by 2030 from $10 billion projected in 2023, Jacobson told investors after markets closed. The company also plans to add $80 billion from new businesses such as the Cruise autonomous vehicle ride service by 2030.
Barra has been campaigning to convince investors that General Motors (NYSE:GM) can top Tesla in technology development and profitability as the auto industry navigates the most profound technology revolution since the mass-produced Ford Model T. She and other GM executives began a two-day series of presentations to investors at the automaker’s Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
They said GM can transform itself “from automaker to platform innovator” – a reference to Silicon Valley digital platform companies such as Apple Inc that have far higher stock valuations than GM and other incumbent auto manufacturers.
Barra took the helm at GM in 2014 and at one point almost doubled the share price from a narrow band around its 2010 initial public offering price of $33. The shares rose after hours on Wednesday after closing at $53.93.
2.CREDIT SUISSE:-Credit Suisse is looking to recoup the external costs it is incurring to recover money for investors in its insolvent supply chain finance funds linked to Greensill, the Swiss bank said on Thursday.
“The recovery work that (Credit Suisse Asset Management) CSAM is doing on behalf of fund investors inevitably incurs external expenses, which are being accrued. The majority of these external costs have not yet been passed on to investors,” the bank said in a note to investors. “CSAM is fronting as much of this expense as possible and will seek to recoup the amount which has been incurred when appropriate.”
The bank has said it expects to accrue around $145 million this year in recovery costs following the collapse of Credit Suisse’s $10 billion worth of supply chain finance funds in March. It has been working with advisers and external experts to help recoup the funds, some $7.0 billion of which had been recovered by end-September.
3.AMAZON-Amazon stock traded 1.1% higher in Thursday’s premarket as it attempted to allay fears over the data hack at Twitch Interactive, a company it acquired in 2014 for about $970 million.
Twitch is an American video live streaming service focusing on video game livestreaming and broadcasts of e-sports competitions.
In a post on its website Wednesday, Twitch said no login credentials or credit card details were compromised. The platform said it doesn’t store full credit card numbers in any case.
Information from the data breach was leaked on the online chat forum 4chan. The user who allegedly posted Twitch data said they did it to hurt its business. The person claimed to have access to the Twitch source code, internal security tools and creator payouts.
Twitch boasts an average of more than 2.5 million viewers at any given moment. More than 7 million unique creators stream live video on the platform and over 30 million users visit the site daily, it says.
4.TESLA:-With final approval for its German factory potentially just weeks away, Tesla ‘s Elon Musk will make an appearance in the tiny town of Gruenheide this Saturday to host a county fair.
Despite pandemic-related curbs limiting gatherings in Germany to under 5,000 people, Tesla applied for – and got – a permit to have 9,000 at the Oct. 9 ‘Giga-Fest’, after local authorities agreed the event would be COVID safe.
Coming on the heels of officials allowing the company to break ground on its new site before final approval had even been granted, environmental groups say this is just the latest example of Tesla being given too much leeway to act disruptively in Germany – a pattern they worry will continue.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
The pre-approvals Musk has received from local authorities to build without final permission are legal, but rarely used by German firms because of the associated risk: if final approval is not granted, Tesla must pay to tear everything down.
While some bemoan Musk’s approach as throwing German caution to the wind, others – who say German regulations governing planning, jobs and environmental concerns are unnecessarily restrictive – welcome the influence he could have on the country’s business culture.
5.RENAULT: Luca de Meo, the recently appointed CEO of French carmaker Renault , said a shortage in semiconductors and other rising costs are set to boost car prices, Spanish newspaper Expansion reported on Thursday.
“Prices will rise even more in the coming 12 months,” he told the newspaper in an interview, as chip makers are taking advantage of the leverage scarcity is giving them.
Car prices are already rising as carmakers focus on more expensive models due to the lack of chips, de Meo told Expansion.
Also boosting car prices are the rising costs of steel, gas, energy, Copper and aluminium, he noted.
Building competitive chip manufacturing capacities in Europe would take more than 10 years, he said.
