Headlines

If not for the efforts of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Industry Minister Kim Carr, there's every chance that Australia's premier car maker, Holden, would have found itself on the chopping block as part of General Motors' global restructuring, according to an editorial in The Age. Instead, its medium-term future is secure—which is the best any industrial company could hope for right now—and it's well advanced in developing and marketing a range of smaller, more efficient cars and engine types. It's not often that a policy can be implemented and tested in such a short time.

The South African unit of General Motors would not be affected by its parent's bankruptcy filing, a senior official at General Motors South Africa said on Monday, Reuters reported. General Motors Corp filed for bankruptcy on Monday, forcing the 100-year-old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might and dynamism into a new and uncertain era of government ownership. Read more.

The chairman of General Motors Argentina, Edgar Lourencon, confirmed that the automaker would not lay off personnel in the country, a day after its mother company in the United States filed for bankruptcy protection, the Buenos Aires Herald reported. Dismissing any rumours about the future of the company, the head of the local branch of GM meanwhile announced that the company is currently developing a new model to be produced in a plant in Santa Fe, which will be exported to the rest of the countries of the Mercosur.

General Motors Corp. reiterated Tuesday its operations in Thailand and Southeast Asia are unaffected by the bankruptcy filing in the U.S., Dow Jones Newswires reported. "GM Asia-Pacific, including GM Thailand and Asean, will be an important part of the New GM and will maintain normal business operations," Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors' Southeast Asia operations, told reporters. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) recently took over the operations of a rural bank in Cagayan Valley following an order of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Monetary Board for its closure due to P77 million in deposit liabilities, the Business Mirror reported. Ordered closed and placed under receivership was the Banco Agricola Inc., a rural bank in Santiago City and with branches in the towns of Ilagan, Roxas, Cabatuan, Echague, Aurora, Cordon, Alicia and San Mateo, all in Isabela; Maddela in Quirino; and Bambang in Nueva Vizcaya.

Canadian doormaker Masonite International Inc said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection in the next few weeks and its reorganization plan was approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Reuters reported. The company said its term lenders chose to convert 99 percent of their holdings to equity, slashing the long-term debt on its balance sheet to about $11.3 million. Masonite filed for bankruptcy in March as part of a pre-arranged plan to restructure the company's crippling debt.

Germany heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday over a deal with Canadian auto parts group Magna, General Motors and the U.S. government to save carmaker Opel from the imminent bankruptcy of its U.S. parent, Reuters reported. The accord sealed after six hours of talks in Chancellor Angela Merkel's offices still needs final approval but seemed set to ringfence Opel and its 50,000 workers in Europe from a GM Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing widely expected for Monday. Merkel said U.S. President Barack Obama--due to visit Germany next week--helped swing the deal with a telephone call on Friday.

Magna, the Canadian car parts maker, and Sberbank, Russia’s biggest state-controlled bank, are poised to become the new shared owners of Vauxhall, the Times Online reported. It is believed that Magna, Sberbank, which is backed by Oleg Deripaska, the Russian aluminium tycoon, and General Motors (GM), the American carmaker, have signed a memorandum of understanding in Germany broadly agreeing to undisclosed terms to carve up the ownership of Vauxhall and Opel between them.

While General Motors Corp. will almost certainly file for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. on Monday, its Canadian subsidiary should emerge from a massive restructuring process relatively unscathed, The Canadian Press reported. The restructuring, which has already been in the works for months and will cost governments around the world tens of billions of dollars, will see the company that once defined the automobile--and capitalism--in North America emerge a government-controlled shadow of its former self.

General Motors Corp. may continue growing in China, its second-largest market, as ties with the city of Shanghai ease local drivers’ concerns about the automaker’s collapse into bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. “In times of duress, it’s nice to have a 50-50 partnership with a very wealthy and powerful city,” said Michael Dunne, managing director of JD Power & Associates China, an automotive consultant.