Guess Why There Is a Trading Halt For SAIC

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

As reported here, GM’s and Volkswagen’s Chinese partner SAIC will halt the trading of its shares on Monday in anticipation of a major plan. The plan doesn’t appear to be fully hatched: According to People’s Daily, “SAIC will make an announcement on the plan in five trading days.”

But what’s that secret plan? Speculations by our commenters range from buying more of GM to buying Saab. One of the Best & Brightest appears to be close to the truth – as far as we can fathom at this point.

Tstag said: “SAIC’s parent company owns other auto companies such as Yeujin motors. It may be that they just plan to group everything together in one group.”

Close. Indeed, Beijing’s Global Times (owned by People’s Daily) today floats the rumor that “SAIC Group is mulling an asset restructure among its subsidiaries and some service-oriented assets which are still unlisted would be injected into SAIC while the group’s three independent auto parts companies would go to Huayu Automotive Systems Co Ltd (Huayu Auto).”

The give-away: Trading in Huayu Auto is also suspended.

As things stand now, nothing earthshaking is bound to happen. However, they will keep the suspense up until the end of the coming week.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 5 comments
  • Tstag Tstag on Feb 12, 2011

    Brightest and best? There's a first for every thing I guess... Now if you need someone to road test cars I'll be only to happy to help... ;-) I have my eye's on the super new Mclaren.....

    • See 2 previous
    • Bertel Schmitt Bertel Schmitt on Feb 13, 2011

      Having your eyes on a McLaren doesn't suffice. The trick is to get your hands on a McLaren, and then your rear end in the driver's seat. Once this is completed, the story is already half written.

  • Trend-Shifter Trend-Shifter on Feb 13, 2011

    Maybe SAIC wants to rid itself of low margin auto parts making like Ford & GM did. Then they can cross bid their ex-suppliers to create further "cost down" opportunities.

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