HD Seeking Federal Bank Bailout Funds
- Thread starter TxRIIIRider
- Start date
Gunshots
Nitrous
I think I'll try that
snuffcityrider
Living Legend
I'd rather see the **** industries bailed out... more dis-clothes-sure there. They don't have anything to hyde and their work force puts out more.
Jamie
Living Legend
2009 models offered with an upfront discount off list here. Had NEVER seen that before. Jamie
RatBoy
Turbocharged
Two Questions
1. Since when is Harley-Davidson a bank...a major segment of the industrial manufacturing base...or anything else that has a huge impact of the national economy? At least, the auto industry accounts for thousands of jobs either directly or indirectly.
2. Since when does a company that makes vehicles classified in most, if not all, states as recreational vehicles deserving of a bailout? What's next? a moped/bicycle/'Big Wheel" bailout?
I guess that everyone wants the chance to suckle the governmental teet!
1. Since when is Harley-Davidson a bank...a major segment of the industrial manufacturing base...or anything else that has a huge impact of the national economy? At least, the auto industry accounts for thousands of jobs either directly or indirectly.
2. Since when does a company that makes vehicles classified in most, if not all, states as recreational vehicles deserving of a bailout? What's next? a moped/bicycle/'Big Wheel" bailout?
I guess that everyone wants the chance to suckle the governmental teet!
Sidecar Flip
Living Legend
HD isn't a bank but like GM and Chrysler and Fords, they (HD) has a credit arm and that credit arm, all, by themselves, approved loans for HD motorcycles to people with less than good credit so the parent company could keep up with it's sales expectations.
They have no one to blame for their woes but themselves, but, just like the Big 2...I can't include Fords, they don't want the money, they are right there, clamping their cash starved lips on your future tax dollars.
The bastards should just go out of business and let the technology based manufacturers pick up the little bit of slack that will occur when the 'Motor Company' ceases to exist.
The more money the Fed prints, the less it's worth. Washington politicians just can't seem to understand that history will repeat itself only it's gonna be uglier this time....much uglier.
scowherd
Top Fuel
I think the way the auto bailout is structured does absolutely nothing to help the economy. The money is being used to pay current debt and cover bad loans. It is not being spent on anything new. They should have taken the bailout money and put it in a buy American campaign. for example ever American made car purchased in 2009 the owner would receive a gov sponsored discount on the product purchased. this would promote spending increase production and keep people employed. As it stands we gave failing companies operating capital when they have been losing market share for years. The American auto industry need do something to increase their market share or they are doomed with or without bailout money. I have a crazy thought lift the embargo on Cuba they haven’t had any American cars in years plus it would allow us to indulge in a few fine smokes.
Jamie
Living Legend
Regardless, 1'100 HD employees are getting the boot as this being typed-up . Three production facilities are also going to be shut down (source:Bloomberg)
Jamie
HD employees are getting the boot as this being typed-up . Three production facilities are also going to be shut down (source:Bloomberg)Jamie
tdragger
Living Legend
Here is the article from Bloomberg.com:
Harley Profit Drops 58%, 1,100 Jobs Cut; Shares Fall (Update2)
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By Alan Ohnsman and Mike Ramsey
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Harley-Davidson Inc., the biggest U.S. motorcycle maker, said fourth-quarter profit fell 58 percent, missing analysts’ estimates, after demand plunged amid the recession.
The company plans to cut 1,100 jobs and close at least three facilities to save at least $60 million a year, it said today in a statement. Revenue fell 6.8 percent to $1.29 billion, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer said. The company wouldn’t project 2009 earnings and said it would reduce shipments by as much as 13 percent to prevent excess inventory.
“We are concerned” that the “production cut might not be conservative enough,” said Ed Aaron, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets Corp. in Denver in a note to investors. He rates the shares “sector perform.”
The stock fell $1.25, or 10 percent, to $11.15 at 9:35 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after dropping as much as 27 percent in electronic trading before the exchange opened. Per-share earnings trailed the average estimate of 57 cents from 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Sales at Harley, the maker of Fat Boy and other cruisers, tumbled through 2008 as the U.S. economy slowed and access to consumer credit tightened. List prices for Harleys range from $6,999 to $35,499. Harley is the world’s largest seller of cruisers, models for leisure riding that are often equipped with engines 1000cc or larger, chrome exhaust pipes and 1950s styling.
Low on the Hog
“We have a strong core business anchored by a uniquely powerful brand, but we are certainly not immune to the current economic conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Ziemer said in the statement.
Net income fell to $77.8 million, or 34 cents a share, from $186.1 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier, when sales totaled $1.48 billion.
The company expects to spend $110 million to $140 million this year and next to cover the job cuts and make adjustments for falling demand. About 70 percent of the job cuts will take place this year and the rest in 2010.
The company will close two engine and transmission plants near Milwaukee and move work to a plant in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. It will consolidate paint and frame operations at its York, Pennsylvania, assembly plant, close a distribution facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, and stop its domestic transportation fleet operation.
Harley also is looking at options to increase capital funding to its finance unit to help improve sales to customers. The finance unit had a $24.9 million operating loss in the quarter.
Harley’s debt rating was cut two grades on Jan. 16 to BBB+ from A by Standard & Poor’s, which cited “concerns about the motorcycle market in the near-to-intermediate term against the backdrop of the recession.’‘
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Mike Ramsey in Southfield, Michigan, at mramsey6@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 23, 2009 09:39 EST
Harley Profit Drops 58%, 1,100 Jobs Cut; Shares Fall (Update2)
Email | Print | A A A
By Alan Ohnsman and Mike Ramsey
Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Harley-Davidson Inc., the biggest U.S. motorcycle maker, said fourth-quarter profit fell 58 percent, missing analysts’ estimates, after demand plunged amid the recession.
The company plans to cut 1,100 jobs and close at least three facilities to save at least $60 million a year, it said today in a statement. Revenue fell 6.8 percent to $1.29 billion, the Milwaukee-based manufacturer said. The company wouldn’t project 2009 earnings and said it would reduce shipments by as much as 13 percent to prevent excess inventory.
“We are concerned” that the “production cut might not be conservative enough,” said Ed Aaron, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets Corp. in Denver in a note to investors. He rates the shares “sector perform.”
The stock fell $1.25, or 10 percent, to $11.15 at 9:35 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after dropping as much as 27 percent in electronic trading before the exchange opened. Per-share earnings trailed the average estimate of 57 cents from 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Sales at Harley, the maker of Fat Boy and other cruisers, tumbled through 2008 as the U.S. economy slowed and access to consumer credit tightened. List prices for Harleys range from $6,999 to $35,499. Harley is the world’s largest seller of cruisers, models for leisure riding that are often equipped with engines 1000cc or larger, chrome exhaust pipes and 1950s styling.
Low on the Hog
“We have a strong core business anchored by a uniquely powerful brand, but we are certainly not immune to the current economic conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Ziemer said in the statement.
Net income fell to $77.8 million, or 34 cents a share, from $186.1 million, or 78 cents, a year earlier, when sales totaled $1.48 billion.
The company expects to spend $110 million to $140 million this year and next to cover the job cuts and make adjustments for falling demand. About 70 percent of the job cuts will take place this year and the rest in 2010.
The company will close two engine and transmission plants near Milwaukee and move work to a plant in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. It will consolidate paint and frame operations at its York, Pennsylvania, assembly plant, close a distribution facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, and stop its domestic transportation fleet operation.
Harley also is looking at options to increase capital funding to its finance unit to help improve sales to customers. The finance unit had a $24.9 million operating loss in the quarter.
Harley’s debt rating was cut two grades on Jan. 16 to BBB+ from A by Standard & Poor’s, which cited “concerns about the motorcycle market in the near-to-intermediate term against the backdrop of the recession.’‘
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.net; Mike Ramsey in Southfield, Michigan, at mramsey6@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 23, 2009 09:39 EST
Jamie
Living Legend
A Rolling Anachronism that Might Stop Rolling
Am both a former Harley owner and stockholder.
My empathy goes to the laid-off blue collars.
And my contempt to the chiefs.
Years of management complacency, no in-house R&D to speak of (V-Rod engine by Porsche, liquid Buell engine by Rotax, $108 mio poured into ailing MV Agusta just a few months ago...), no new products in years apart for denim paint, a beefier frame on the Glides and yet another V-Rod rendition for model year 2009, a notoriously dictatorial stance towards dealers, exorbitant sticker prices for a technology (hardly the right word) which must have been fully depreciated a decade or two ago, lavish compensation to the brass, an over-reliance on clothing and accessories for profits, and, as of late...
... desperate if not suicidal credit or leasing terms to end-users to make up for (disguise? delay?) all of the above in terms of eventual '08 commercial and financial results...
Pathetic, isn't it?
Jamie
Am both a former Harley owner and stockholder.
My empathy goes to the laid-off blue collars.
And my contempt to the chiefs.
Years of management complacency, no in-house R&D to speak of (V-Rod engine by Porsche, liquid Buell engine by Rotax, $108 mio poured into ailing MV Agusta just a few months ago...), no new products in years apart for denim paint, a beefier frame on the Glides and yet another V-Rod rendition for model year 2009, a notoriously dictatorial stance towards dealers, exorbitant sticker prices for a technology (hardly the right word) which must have been fully depreciated a decade or two ago, lavish compensation to the brass, an over-reliance on clothing and accessories for profits, and, as of late...
... desperate if not suicidal credit or leasing terms to end-users to make up for (disguise? delay?) all of the above in terms of eventual '08 commercial and financial results...
Pathetic, isn't it?
Jamie
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