FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Tesla’s announcement earlier this month that it will build its first European factory near Berlin will draw further companies from the electric mobility and energy storage sectors into Germany, a state premier told newspaper Die Welt.
“They are already on their way. I’m hearing there are further inquiries with the communities and the regional business development programme. Tesla will cause other companies to follow,” said Dietmar Woidke, premier of the eastern German state of Brandenburg that surrounds Berlin.
He said Brandenburg was already in talks with other companies, declining to identify them due to confidentiality agreements. “I expect that we can announce it before Christmas,” Woidke said.
Tesla’s move is a big boost for Germany as a centre for manufacturing after BMW and Daimler in recent years chose to build new factories in Hungary, and after its auto industry was hit hard by Volkswagen’s admission in 2015 that it cheated U.S. diesel emissions tests.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Brandenburg’s PM Woidke speaks speaks to the media on Tesla European factory in Potsdam
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler said on Friday it will cut at least 10,000 jobs worldwide over the next three years, following others in the industry as they cut costs to invest in electric vehicles while grappling with weakening sales.
It marks the third announcement on cost cuts this week by a major German car company as automakers seek to fund huge investments into cleaner and self-driving technologies while demand in China, their biggest market, is falling and a trade war between Washington and Beijing is curbing economic growth.
“The automotive industry is in the middle of the biggest transformation in its history,” Daimler said in a statement.
Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, revealed the 3% cut in its workforce after reaching an agreement on its plans with labor unions.
They have agreed on a variety of measures to cut costs and jobs, including expanding part-time retirement and a severance program to be offered in Germany. The company is also cutting 10% of worldwide management positions.
Staff reductions would be in the low five-digits, or at least 10,000 people, according to Wilfried Porth, a board member in charge of human resources. The company employed 304,680 staff at the end of the third quarter.
Plans laid out by Daimler in November showed the company aimed to cut staff costs by around 1.4 billion euros ($1.54 billion) by the end of 2022.
The announcement comes days after Volkswagen’s <VOWG_p.DE> luxury car unit Audi said it would cut up to 9,500 jobs or one in ten staff by 2025, freeing up billions of euros to fund its shift toward electric vehicle production.
Also this week, BMW said that its management and labor had reached an agreement on measures to reduce bonus and other pay schemes for staff to cut costs.
Car suppliers Continental and Osram have also announced staff and cost cuts.
Daimler has repeatedly cut its profit outlook over recent months, partly to cover a regulatory crackdown on diesel emissions but also because of a slowing auto market.
Group operating profit will be “significantly lower” than a year ago, the company said last month.
Other measures to reduce staffing costs include offering shorter working weeks.
Agreements in place to prevent forced redundancies in Germany until 2029 will remain in place, Daimler said.
The workforce needs a clear strategy for the future, said Michael Brecht, chairman of Daimler’s works council. “A reduction in capacity must not be carried out on the backs of the employees,” he said.
(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
The Daimler logo is seen before the Daimler annual shareholder meeting in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: BAIC Group automobile maker at the IEEV New Energy Vehicles Exhibition in Beijing
BEIJING/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Daimler’s <DDAIF> main Chinese joint venture partner BAIC Group has signalled its intention to increase its stake in the German luxury car manufacturer, sources briefed on the matter said, after it built up a 5% Daimler holding in July.
Officials at BAIC’s listed company, BAIC Motor Corp Ltd, said at investor conferences in mid-October that “both sides are willing to increase stakes in the other”, responding to questions about future relationship between BAIC Group and Daimler, the sources said.
Daimler said in a regulatory filing on Friday that HSBC held 5.23% in Daimler’s voting rights directly as well as through instruments such as equity swaps as of Nov 15. BAIC has used HSBC to help it build its initial 5% stake.
Sources declined to be named as they are not allowed to speak to media.
A Daimler spokesman on Monday said, that the company had received notification from HSBC that the voting stake of 5% has been exceeded.
While the spokesman would not say whether BAIC played a role in the transaction, he added that Daimler welcomed long-term shareholders such as BAIC, who support the carmaker’s strategies.
“Daimler AG appreciates BAIC as long-standing partner and long-term investor,” the spokesman said in a written statement.
“Such shareholders help us to further safeguard and strengthen the capitalization of our company,” the statement continued.
BAIC was not immediately available for comment.
Geely, Daimler’s biggest shareholder with a 9.7% stake, said: “We are a long-term investor in Daimler. We do not react spontaneously to any volatility and we support Daimler’s management and their strategy.”
BAIC (Beijing Automobile Group Co Ltd) has been Daimler’s main partner in China for years and operates Mercedes-Benz factories in Beijing through Beijing Benz Automotive.
Two months before its July stake deal was announced, sources told Reuters that BAIC wanted to invest in Daimler to secure its investment in Beijing Benz Automotive.
In March, sources told Reuters Daimler had asked Goldman Sachs <GS> to help it explore increasing its stake in BAIC’s Hong Kong-listed company.
The partners also planned to revamp manufacturing facilities to make Mercedes Benz-branded trucks via their commercial vehicle joint venture Foton Daimler Automotive (BFDA), Reuters reported in August citing a document and sources familiar with matter.
The companies also said Daimler and BAIC’s new energy vehicle unit BluePark have jointly developed a battery research lab in Beijing.
State-owned BAIC built its stake after Li Shufu, chairman of rival private automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, built a 9.69% stake in Stuttgart-based Daimler in early 2018.
By using Hong Kong shell companies, derivatives, bank financing and structured share options, Li kept the plan under wraps until he was able, at a stroke, to become Daimler’s single largest shareholder.
Since the investment, Geely and Daimler have said they plan to build the next generation of Smart electric cars in China through a joint venture.
Zhejiang-based Geely owns Volvo while BAIC in addition to Daimler has a partnership with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor <HYMTF>.
Daimler said it had collaborated with BAIC in areas such as production, research and development and sales since 2003.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Edward Taylor; additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Ludwig Burger; editing by Brenda Goh, Jason Neely and Louise Heavens)
China’s BAIC willing to increase Daimler holding after 5% stake buy – sources FILE PHOTO: Ola Kaellenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, speaks at a media event during the Guangzhou auto show in Guangzhou
MILAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Italian infrastructure group Atlantia said on Tuesday it was not ready to join a consortium led by Italian railway group Ferrovie dello Stato to rescue loss-making carrier Alitalia, casting a shadow on the entire project.
After months of negotiations and with just one day left before a deadline expires, the group controlled by the Benetton family said that the conditions did not exist yet for it to join a consortium working on Alitalia.
Atlantia added, however, it remained available to engage in negotiations to seek for an industrial partner for the carrier.
A deadline to present a binding offer for Alitalia expires on Thursday, after being postponed several times.
Loss-making Alitalia has been run by special administrators since May 2017 and talks led by Ferrovie have been going on for a year without a deal.
The carrier, which is burning through its cash reserves, is expected to finish its money at the end of this year.
Ferrovie and Atlantia have been in talks with both U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines Inc and, recently, with German airline Lufthansa.
Delta said it was ready to invest 100 million euros ($111 million) in the Italian carrier but sources had said it did not agree with Ferrovie and Atlantia over the development of the Italian carrier’s long-haul business.
On the other hand, Lufthansa said it was prepared to set up a commercial partnership with the Italian carrier but did not want to take a stake in the group before it has gone through a complete restructuring.
“We will not invest in current Alitalia, but we are interested being a commercial partner,” said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr at an event in Berlin on Tuesday.
Italian daily La Repubblica on Tuesday said the airline could be nationalized for some years before being sold.
Analysts calculate that Italian taxpayers have spent more than 9 billion euros to support Alitalia, which has undergone two previous failed rescue attempts.
($1 = 0.9028 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach in Berlin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
MILAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Alitalia’s administrators said they had no preferred option between Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, the two groups talking with rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato about a rescue for the troubled Italian carrier.
Ferrovie, which is leading a state-orchestrated effort to rescue Alitalia, will have to choose between the two foreign carriers in the next weeks as the financial performance of Alitalia was deteriorating, the administrators said.
“We do not have any preference about the industrial partner for Alitalia, we are unbiased,” Daniele Discepolo, one of the three administrators in charge of the airline told a parliamentary hearing.
Delta and Lufthansa belong to rival respective airline alliances and are both interested in the lucrative Italian market, one of the world’s top tourism destinations which is seeing good growth in foreign visitors.
Lufthansa wrote to Ferrovie recently offering a commercial partnership with Alitalia and saying it could take a stake in the carrier under certain conditions to be agreed with other partners.
The German carrier, however, has so far refrained from indicating precisely how much it was prepared to pay and under what conditions. In the letter Lufthansa only said it could invest more than Delta, which, so far, has committed around 100 million euros ($111 million) for Alitalia.
Discepolo and fellow administrators Enrico Laghi and Stefano Paleari said the government’s planned grant of a fresh 400 million euros bridge loan was needed to keep Alitalia’s airplanes flying until the rescue was successfully finalised.
The state has already granted a 900 million euro loan for the carrier and analysts calculate that Italian taxpayers have spent more than 9 billion euros to support Alitalia, which has undergone two previous failed rescue attempts.
Paleari said Alitalia’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were negative to the tune of 164 million euros in the first half of this year, worsening from a 124 million euro loss in the same period last year partly due to higher fuel costs.
(Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot owner PSA are in talks to combine in a deal that could create a $50 billion (£38.88 billion) automaker, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Fiat Chrysler shares rose sharply after news of the talks and ended up more than 7.5% in U.S. trading. The companies and the French government had no comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the discussions. PSA’s supervisory board was due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the potential merger, another source close to the matter said.
If a combination of Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler succeeded in overcoming political, financial and governance hurdles, the new enterprise would still face substantial challenges. Global automakers face the prospect of a slowdown in global demand coinciding with the most dramatic technology changes in a century.
Peugeot Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has predicted “ten years of chaos” for global automakers as regulators demand a switch to electric vehicles to reduce emissions linked to climate change.
Investors have speculated for several years that Fiat Chrysler was hunting for a merger partner, encouraged by the rhetoric of the company’s late chief executive, Sergio Marchionne.
In 2015, Marchionne outlined the case for consolidation of the auto industry and tried unsuccessfully to interest General Motors Co in a deal. Fiat Chrysler earlier this year broached a merger with French automaker Renault SA that ultimately collapsed.
Created when Fiat, under Marchionne’s leadership, bought control of Chrysler out of a U.S. government-backed bankruptcy in 2009, Fiat Chrysler has one of the global auto industry’s most profitable franchises in the Jeep sport utility vehicle brand and a money-spinning North American pickup and commercial van operation in Ram. Both would boost Peugeot, which does not sell vehicles in the U.S. market.
Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler could over time share engines and vehicle architectures, reducing capital spending and freeing up cash to invest in electric vehicles and emissions reduction technology required in Europe, China and other global markets.
Fiat Chrysler is under increasing pressure to invest in clean car technology. The company disclosed earlier this month that it faces a $79 million fine for falling short of U.S. fuel efficiency standards. Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc for credits to help it comply with European emissions standards until 2022.
Evercore analyst Arndt Ellinghorst in a note on Tuesday said a combination of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot “should ignite more rational industry behavior around allocation of capital and this particular merger makes materially more sense than a potential FCA-Renault merger.”
Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler had discussed a combination earlier this year, before Fiat Chrysler proposed a $35 billion merger with Renault. At that time, Fiat Chrysler said a deal with Renault offered more advantages than a combination with Peugeot.
Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann broke off talks with Renault in June after French government officials intervened and pushed for Renault first to resolve tensions with its Japanese alliance partner, Nissan Motor Co.
Following the collapse of the Renault merger plan, Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley left the door open for talks with would-be partners. But he said the Italian-American automaker could go it alone despite mounting costs to develop electric vehicles and comply with tougher emissions rules in Europe, the United States and China.
Along with Jeep and Ram would come Fiat’s Italian operations, which have struggled in recent years. Fiat’s Mirafiori assembly complex in its home city of Turin has run below 50% capacity, with thousands of workers on temporary layoffs.
Overall, Fiat has 58,000 workers in Italy, where the government has long resisted mass lay-offs by large employers.
Peugeot’s Tavares dismissed the idea of a combination with Fiat Chrysler during a discussion with reporters at the Frankfurt auto show last month. “We don’t need it,” he said when asked whether he was still interested in a deal with Fiat Chrysler.
Tavares has moved aggressively to expand Peugeot, acquiring German auto brand Opel from General Motors Co for $2.6 billion in 2017. Since then, he has overseen a turnaround at Opel.
Fiat Chrysler already has a commercial vehicle partnership with Peugeot.
(Reporting by Dominic Roshan K.L. in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel, Richard Chang and Dan Grebler)
22 October 2019 – Alstom will supply 39 additional Coradia Polyvalent trains to the Grand Est region for the sum of approximately 360 million euros[1]. The region had already ordered 40 Coradia Polyvalent trains, of which 36 have already been delivered. Deliveries of these new trains will be staggered between 2022 and 2024.
Firstly, this new order covers 30 trains intended for cross-border circulation in Germany. These 4-car trains, which are dual mode – dual voltage 25 kV / 15 kV and comply with German safety requirements, will run at 160 km/h, serving the German states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. The 30 Coradia Polyvalent cross-border trains will offer a first-class zone and an area for bicycles, and will incorporate the new TSI PRM[2] 2014 standard, notably offering more spacious toilets to facilitate movement for passengers with reduced mobility. The first cross-border trains will be delivered at the end of 2023.
Secondly, nine additional Coradia Polyvalent trains, consisting of five 4-car and four 6-car trains, have been added to the existing fleet for domestic connections. These new trains will benefit from the same special features as those already in operation in the Grand Est region.
“Alstom is proud of this new sign of trust from the Grand Est region. The expertise and innovation capacities of our French teams are mobilised to support the region in developing cross-border mobility. This order also contributes to the activity of Alstom’s Reichshoffen site,” says Jean-Baptiste Eyméoud, President of Alstom in France.
Coradia Polyvalent belongs to Alstom’s Coradia range of trains. With its modular architecture, it can be adapted to the requirements of each public transport authority as well as to different types of use: suburban, regional and intercity. It comes in three lengths (56, 72 or 110 metres) and offers optimal comfort to passengers, whatever the length of the journey. The train is both ecological and economical due to its low energy consumption, its compliance with the latest emissions standards in thermal mode and its reduced maintenance costs. Coradia Polyvalent is the first French regional train to comply with all European standards, in particular with regard to access for people with reduced mobility.
To date, 387 Coradia Polyvalent trains have been ordered as part of the contract awarded to Alstom by SNCF in October 2009, including 320 Coradia Polyvalent for Régiolis by 9 French regions and 67 Coradia Liner by the French state, the authority responsible for the country’s TET (intercity) trains. Régiolis has already covered nearly 85 million kilometres in commercial service.
The Coradia Polyvalent train also meets the needs of the export market: 17 trains have been ordered by SNTF (Algeria) and 15 trains by APIX (Senegal).
This is Coradia Polyvalent’s second cross-border application as the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has ordered 17 Léman Express Coradia Polyvalent trains, to be commissioned on the CEVA cross-border line between France and Switzerland in mid-December 2019.
The manufacturing of Coradia Polyvalent secures more than 4,000 jobs in France for Alstom and its suppliers. Six of Alstom’s 12 sites in France are involved in the project: Reichshoffen for the design and assembly, Ornans for the engines, Le Creusot for the bogies, Tarbes for the traction chains, Villeurbanne for the on-board electronics and signalling products, and Saint-Ouen for the design.
[1] Booked in the second quarter of the current fiscal year
[2] Technical Specifications for Interoperability relating to Persons with Reduced Mobility
PARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) – France and Germany have signed a binding deal on arm exports control rules for jointly developed programmes, such as the tank and the warplane of the future, the two countries said on Wednesday in a statement issued after a joint cabinet meeting held in Toulouse.
German curbs on arms exports to non-European Union or non-NATO countries have been a thorn in bilateral co-operation for years. Germany’s SPD party, part of the ruling coalition, is particularly concerned about the trade.
According to the deal signed on Wednesday, Germany will not block French exports to third countries provided equipment was made with less than 20% German components.
French firms, such as Nexter and Arquus, previously known as Renault Trucks Defense, say German restrictions have hindered export deals. Nexter was also worried about the feasibility of the tank of the future project (MGCS) that should be developed with German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
Airbus Defence & Space and Dassault equally complained that the SCAF fighter jet project with Germany and Spain could be left in limbo.
France and Germany tentatively agreed to speed up the development of the warplane in the next few months, French President Emmanuel Macron said during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The two countries will sign in January 2020 a deal to develop the SCAF demonstrator programme, French minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly said on Twitter.
Besides defence deals, Paris and Berlin also said they agreed to give preferential treatment to European companies for the launch of space rockets.
(Writing by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Tangi Salaün; Editing by John Irish)
PARIS, Oct 7 (Reuters) – France’s Dassault Aviation and Europe’s Airbus have stepped up pressure on France and Germany to agree on the next stage of a planned fighter project, warning Europe’s arms industry and long-term security could suffer from delays.
The two companies are the leading industrial partners in a project to build a futuristic swarm of manned and unmanned warplanes, announced by the leaders of France and Germany two years ago and expanded earlier this year to include Spain.
Dassault and Airbus won a 65-million-euro contract in January to develop the concept for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but await a new contract to build demonstrators for interlinked fighters, drones and an “air combat cloud” by 2026.
Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Eric Trappier told a conference of policymakers last month that the demonstrator contract should have been launched in September but this was now slipping towards end-year. He called it “indispensable” to avoid any further delays in order to maintain the 2026 deadline.
No reason has been given for the delays.
On Monday evening, Dassault and Airbus amplified those warnings with a joint statement.
“If Europe does not move forward — and move forward quickly — on this programme, it will be impossible to maintain the development and production capabilities needed for a sovereign defence industry,” the companies said.
The warplane system is expected to be operational from 2040, with a view to replacing Dassault’s Rafale and the four-nation Eurofighter, in which Airbus represents both Germany and Spain.
The new project faces competition from Britain and its plans for a new combat jet dubbed “Tempest”.
The fighter developments have split the current Eurofighter consortium and led to a shake-up of industrial alliances as Italy joins Eurofighter partner Britain on Tempest, turning its back on Germany and Spain, while Sweden has opened the door to abandoning its independent stance by co-operating on Tempest.
The FCAS is also overshadowed by differences between France and Germany over export policy after Germany imposed a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia over the death of killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year ago by Saudi operatives.
The ban, recently extended to March, has raised questions over a long-delayed Saudi border systems contract run by Airbus.
Airbus Defence and Space Chief Executive Dirk Hoke called in a magazine interview last week for the export ban to be relaxed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has said there is no reason for the moratorium to be lifted.
France and Germany are expected to discuss the issue at ministerial meetings this week.
AIRBUS SETBACK IN SPAIN
Airbus meanwhile faces a battle to shore up its position as a top defence contractor in Spain after losing its place as the representative of Spain’s interests on the upcoming fighter project to local defence electronics firm Indra Sistemas.
Spain last month named Indra as contractor for the Spanish share of the Franco-German-led FCAS project, displacing Airbus from the Spanish coordinator role it had held on Eurofighter.
Airbus officials have pledged to try to overturn the move but a Spanish defence source told Reuters there was no change in the decision.
Indra declined to comment.
Publicly, Airbus has said it was surprised by the decision but has pledged to continue to defend Spain’s best interests.
Dassault will meanwhile mark a long-awaited milestone on Tuesday when it delivers the first of 36 Rafales to India, the culmination of a fighter procurement process that lasted almost 20 years and involved the cancellation of a much larger deal.
La Tribune reported on Monday that France and India were discussing a possible repeat order for 36 more Rafales.
(Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo Gonzalez in Madrid, Tassilo Hummel in Berlin, Editing by Deepa Babington)
Ryanair today (02 Oct) confirmed that its pilots based in Germany have voted by a majority of 99% in favour of a 4 year Collective Labour Agreement (VTV), to cover all Ryanair’s directly employed pilots in Germany until March 2023.
The agreement, negotiated between Ryanair and the pilot union VC, will deliver a new pay structure along with a fixed 5/4 roster. Ryanair and VC have also agreed a Social Plan to govern German base closures or reductions.
