Bankruptcy Is Option To GM Board
知情人士透露，陷入困境的通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)董事会成员目前愿意考虑包括申请破产保护在内的“所有选择方案”，从而使他们和公司董事长兼首席执行长瓦格纳(Rick Wagoner)出现了罕见的立场分歧。
Members of General Motors Corp.'s board of directors are willing to consider 'all options' for the ailing auto maker, including an eventual filing for bankruptcy protection, a stance that puts them in rare disagreement with Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, people familiar with the matter said.
正在努力争取联邦资金救助的瓦格纳上周对国会表示，通用管理层认为破产保护不是公司的可行方案，公司正致力于说服议员们同意提供财务救助。
As part of his push to win a federal bailout for the company, Mr. Wagoner told Congress this week that GM management believes bankruptcy protection is not a viable option for the company. Instead, GM is focusing on persuading lawmakers to provide financial help, Mr. Wagoner said.
一直公开强烈支持瓦格纳的通用汽车董事会也同意，寻求政府救助是公司当务之急。但据了解通用董事会外部董事想法的人士透露，董事会不愿排除申请破产的可能性。
The board, which in the past has publicly offered Mr. Wagoner its strong support, agrees that seeking government funding is the company's top priority. But it isn't willing to dismiss the possibility of a bankruptcy filing, say people familiar with the thinking of the board's outside directors.
通用汽车上周五在向《华尔街日报》提供的声明中说，董事会对申请破产进行了讨论，但并不认为申请破产是解决流动性问题的可行性方案。通用汽车发言人托尼?瑟沃尼(Tony Cervone)表示，公司董事会将视情况的发展考虑各种选择方案，管理层正在考虑在职权范围内竭尽所能以避免破产。
In a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal on Friday, GM said the board had discussed bankruptcy but didn't view it as a 'viable solution to the company's liquidity problems.' The board 'is committed to considering all options in light of circumstances as they may develop.' A GM spokesman, Tony Cervone, said that management is considering doing everything in its power to avoid a filing.
通用汽车表示，瓦格纳不愿接受采访。记者上周五未能联系到公司几位董事会成员予以置评。目前还不清楚董事会是否聘请了独立顾问以协助评估可能不得不考虑的选择方案。
GM said Mr. Wagoner declined to be interviewed. Several of GM's board members could not be reached for comment on Friday. It is unclear whether the board has hired independent advisers to help it evaluate options it may have to consider.
通用汽车董事会内部出现新的紧张迹象，可能会令55岁的瓦格纳今后几周的日子更加难过。在过去一个月中，他已被迫承认通用汽车使用现金的速度达到了危险水平。瓦格纳表示，受信贷市场冻结和汽车需求暴跌的影响，公司的现金可能最早在明年1月就会跌破维持正常运转的最低水平。通用汽车上周五收盘为3.06美元，上涨18美分，涨幅6.25%。而一年之前通用汽车股价还在42美元左右。
New signs of tension in the boardroom could complicate the next few weeks for Mr. Wagoner, 55 years old. In the past month, he has had to acknowledge GM is using cash at an alarming rate. Mr. Wagoner said that as soon as January, amid frozen credit markets and a collapse in demand for automobiles, the company could fall short of the minimum levels it needs to stay out of bankruptcy court. On Friday, GM shares closed at $3.06, up 18 cents, or 6.25%. A year ago, the stock was trading at about $42.
最近几周来，通用汽车董事会已开始表露出他们不怕与瓦格纳立场不一致，上周五表现出来的分歧至少是第二次发生这种情况了。今年秋天，瓦格纳的管理小组推出了一项计划，可能与克莱斯勒(Chrysler LLC)寻求合并。但据知情人士透露，一些董事对这个计划兴趣寡然。11月初，在通用汽车即将公布第三季度大幅亏损和现金流出69亿美元的季报时，公司董事会督促管理层放弃合并谈判，以集中精力应对流动性危机。
Friday's split represented at least the second time in recent weeks the board has shown a willingness to oppose Mr. Wagoner. This fall, Mr. Wagoner's management team presented a plan to potentially merge with Chrysler LLC. Some directors gave that plan a cold reception, according to people familiar with the meetings. By early November, when GM was set to report deep losses and $6.9 billion in cash outflows for the third quarter, the board encouraged GM management to quit the merger talks and focus solely on its liquidity crisis, these people said.
在通用汽车14席董事会中，有9位董事在2003年瓦格纳出任董事长时就已经在位。许多董事都是瓦格纳的导师兼前任史密斯(Jack Smith)执掌通用的时候当选的。在通用汽车近年来遭受数十亿美元亏损的情况下，董事会首席董事、伊士曼-柯达公司(Eastman Kodak Co.)退休董事长费什(George Fisher)仍多次表示支持瓦格纳。董事会其他成员还包括前安永(Ernst & Young)董事长拉斯卡维(Phil Laskawy)北卡罗来纳大学校长鲍尔斯(Erskine Bowles)。拉斯卡维最近被任命为房利美(Fannie Mae)董事长，鲍尔斯则曾担任克林顿总统的白宫幕僚长。
Of GM's 14 board members, nine have been in place since Mr. Wagoner became chairman in 2003. Many were elected when Mr. Wagoner's mentor and predecessor, Jack Smith, was running the auto maker. Lead director George Fisher, the retired chairman of Eastman Kodak Co., several times in recent years voiced support for Mr. Wagoner as the company racked up billions in losses. Other directors include Phil Laskawy, the retired Chairman of Ernst & Young, who was recently named Chairman of Fannie Mae, and University of North Carolina president Erskine Bowles, who was chief of staff for President Bill Clinton.
今年夏初，通用汽车董事会打破了以往月度董事会会议的惯例，开始每周五召开电话会议。最近几周，董事会每周都要召开多次电话会议，讨论公司解决流动性危机的对策。
In a break from its traditional monthly board meetings, early in the summer the board started convening by phone each Friday. In recent weeks it has added several more weekly teleconferences to discuss how GM should approach the liquidity option.
通用汽车上周五表示，正在制定新的成本削减措施。公司表示，美国三家工厂和加拿大安大略一家工厂可能会延长以往两周的假期停工期，直到明年1月份。公司还表示，可能会提前关闭安大略的一家卡车工厂。
On Friday, GM said it is pushing ahead with new cost-cutting measures. It said three plants in the U.S. and one in Ontario, Canada, would extend their normal two-week holiday shut-downs into January. It also said it would close down an Ontario truck plant sooner than it had planned.
通用汽车的飞机专机还剩下5架。公司证实，将中止其中2架的租赁合同。上周瓦格纳和底特律另外两家汽车公司的首席执行长乘坐公司专机前往国会申请数十亿美元公共资金救助，他们为此遭到了国会的严厉批评。
GM also confirmed it is ending leases on two of the five remaining corporate jets in its fleet. The move comes after Mr. Wagoner and Detroit's two other auto CEOs were chastised in Congress for flying corporate jets to meetings this week in which they asked for billions of dollars in public assistance.
通用汽车发言人威尔金森(Tom Wilkinson)表示，坐着公司专机出现在华盛顿，公司理解这个具有象征意义的问题，对此也非常敏感。
'We understand the symbolic issue of people showing up in Washington in corporate jets,' GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. 'We're very sensitive to that.'
瓦格纳和福特汽车(Ford Motor Co.)以及克莱斯勒首席执行长上周前往华盛顿，希望从财政部用于救助陷入困境的金融机构的7,000亿美元资金中获取250亿美元救急，或说服国会加快发放已经批准的250亿美元贷款；这笔贷款是根据能源部一项提高能效计划，批给底特律汽车制造商的。
Mr. Wagoner and the chief executives of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC were in Washington hoping to get $25 billion from the $700 billion fund administered by the Treasury Department for troubled financial institutions, or to persuade Congress to accelerate the release of $25 billion in loans that had already been pledged to Detroit through an Energy Department fuel-efficiency program.
瓦格纳、福特汽车的穆拉利(Alan Mulally)、克莱斯勒的纳德里(Robert Nardelli)对议员们表示，他们已经开始对公司实施重组，需要过渡性贷款帮助他们度过难关。瓦格纳恳请政府立即提供100亿至120亿美元的贷款。
Mr. Wagoner, Ford's Alan Mulally and Chrysler's Robert Nardelli told lawmakers they have been restructuring their companies and need bridge loans to carry them through until the economy recovers. Mr. Wagoner asked the government for $10 billion to $12 billion in immediate funding.
三人都表示，他们担心三家中任何一家公司申请破产都会导致另外两家公司的连锁崩溃。他们指出，由于三家公司共享供应商，因此一家公司倒闭可能会拖垮供应商网络，从而影响另外一家或两家公司。他们还提到，有研究显示，由于担心没有质量保证或无法获得部件，消费者可能不愿意购买破产汽车制造商的产品。
All three expressed concern that a bankruptcy filing by any one of their companies could cause a collapse of the others. Because the companies share suppliers, one maker's failure could bring down the supplier network, they say, impacting one or both of the others. They also point to studies showing that consumers would be unwilling to buy cars from bankrupt auto makers, out of concern that warranties may not be honored or spare parts could become unavailable.
议员们很怀疑三家公司是否已经采取了切实举措带领公司重回盈利之路。在遭受两天的严厉批评后，底特律三巨头的老总们被告知，12月2日再来国会，介绍如果获准使用纳税人资金进行救助，他们将如何使用这笔钱。
Lawmakers were skeptical that the companies had taken the tough steps to put their companies on the road to profitability. After enduring two days of harsh criticism, the Detroit CEOs were told to come back by Dec. 2 to describe how they'd use taxpayer funds to become 'viable.'
众议院议长佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)和参议院多数派领袖雷德(Harry Reid)上周五在一封信函中表示，汽车制造商必须提供他们长期稳定所需现金的确切评估。他们还表示，汽车制造商获得贷款后，必须保证政府债权人地位高于其他所有债权人，完成能效目标，限制高管薪酬并提供认股权证，保证公司复苏后纳税人可以从中获利。
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a letter that auto makers must provide 'a forthright, documented assessment' of how much cash they need to become stable for the long term. They also said the companies, if granted loans, must make the government senior to all other creditors, meet fuel-efficiency targets, limit executive pay and offer warrants to allow taxpayers to profit if the companies recover.
一些议员仍然认为，破产是一个可能的归宿。田纳西州共和党参议员、参议院银行委员会成员考克(Bob Corker)表示，共和党参议员一直在讨论所谓的预先打包破产的问题，即债权人同意在公司申请破产保护之前重组债务。
Some in Congress remain convinced that bankruptcy is a possible avenue. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said Republican senators have been discussing a so-called prepackaged bankruptcy, in which creditors agree to restructure debts before a company seeks court protection.
公司有时可以利用这一方案避免长期陷入破产僵局。但破产专家警告称，像通用汽车这样的大型公司的破产程序可能陷入泥淖，因为其中牵涉到错综复杂的工会和经销商合约以及层层债权人。
Companies sometimes are able to use such an option to avoid long stays in bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy experts warn, however, that a bankruptcy proceeding for a large company such as GM could get bogged down because of its complex union and dealership contracts and array of creditors.
John D. Stoll
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