Posted on Monday 28 April 2008
With Ford posting a first quarter profit of $100 million last week, the Blue Oval has suddenly become a lot more interesting in the eyes of investors and has even managed to attract the attention of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian. His company, Tracinda Corp, today announced that it would make a cash tender offer for up to 20 million Ford shares at $8.50 a piece – 13.3% up on last Friday’s closing price.
On completion of the buy, Tracinda will own more than 120 million shares of Ford common stock – about 5.6% of the carmaker. Kerkorian believes Ford is achieving its turnaround targets and that its CEO Alan Mulally will continue to show improvements going forward, reports Automotive News.
Kerkorian has been very active in the U.S. auto industry over the past couple of years. Last year Kerkorian was one of the main bidders for Chrysler but lost out to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, and before that he held a 9.9% stake in GM. He offloaded his stock back in 2006 following the rejection of a proposed tie-up with Renault-Nissan that he presented to GM’s management.
well that will do a lot for ford’s market image with investors. also, nearly 200 million dollars in funding is always a nice little kick in the pants.
He’s buying common stock on the open market…Ford will not see 1 penny of that money….