Lutz And Chinese Offer One Penny On The Dollar For Fisker

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: May 23rd, 2013

lutz and chinese offer one penny on the dollar for fisker

Fisker is worth around 200 Karmas at retail. “A team including former General Motors Co executive Bob Lutz and China’s largest parts maker is looking to buy Fisker Automotive for $20 million, a fraction of the “green” car company’s estimated worth almost a year and a half ago,” Reuters says.

Late 2011, Fisker told prospective investors that its total capitalization was “approaching” $2 billion, according to an investor document filing obtained by Reuters. If the bid is successful, Fisker would have officially lost 99 percent of its valuation over the course of less than two years.

Fisker now owes the DOE some $171 million in loans. Another deal is in the works to buy out the DOE’s position in Fisker at a discount. The DOE had no comment.

#A123 #BertelSchmitt #BobLutz #China #Fisker #GeneralMotors #Reuters #Wanxiang

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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Jean-Pierre Sarti on May 23, 2013

To me the more interesting story here is about Lutz. What a two-face SOB. One the one hand he goes all 'Merican when it is convenient to his interests and on the other side he turns into this Italian suit wearing, foreign jet flying, Chinese company enabler (I want to say worse but decorum prevents me). Just to be straight I don't begrudge him his business deals as long as he is doing it legally but I absolutely hate people who behave this hypocritically. Where are all the Lutz boot lickers now? Surely bringing the world the CTS-V only gives one so much cred right?

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- Lorenzo on May 23, 2013
  
  Have you seen his resume? He's worked for the Big Three (or 2-1/2) plus BMW. He worked for Chrysler when they absorbed American Motors, and he'd have worked for Studebaker if they hadn't gone under. He'll work for anybody in automotive as long as they pay his going rate, and given his reputation (he's a go-to guy for the financial channels on all things automotive), he doesn't work cheap.
  
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- KixStart on May 23, 2013
  
  @Lorenzo He was CEO of Exide when it went under. He was Vice-Chair and "Car Czar" at GM when it went under. That's some resume.
  
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KixStart on May 23, 2013

I'd like to know how much of the deal Lutz is putting together is Lutz' own money. It also occurs to me that this might just, literally, be a bid for attention. Lutz likes to think of himself as a major mover and shaker in the automotive world and he probably misses the action. Literally a penny on the dollar is a cheap proposal, possibly not even serious, but it gets his name circulating again. Perhaps he thinks VIA is played out and needs something new.

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- SCE to AUX on May 23, 2013
  
  I tend to agree; he loves the spotlight. But he's dumber than he looks if he's flushing up to $20 million of his own money at Fisker.
  
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- David Dennis on May 23, 2013
  
  @SCE to AUX I have to admit, I'm not sure why anyone would want Fisker. It's an awfully damaged brand, and customer satisfaction couldn't have been great. I'm sure Bob Lutz, given his reputation, didn't have to put much or even any money into this. D
  
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- KixStart on May 23, 2013
  
  @David Dennis Lutz is a huckster. I can't understand the auto world's love for him. He helped steer two companies onto the rocks and he did it with a toxic mix of arrogance, brag and bluster. He threw a hissy-fit to get the Volt going because it offended his vanity that somebody else (Musk) could make a go of EVs. In so doing, he committed GM to a car can't keep the factory going, even with a heavy subsidy. He gets a lot of credit for the '08 Malibu when it was the result of a team effort and all Lutz did was keep out of the way and maybe keep accounting out of the way, too. Several of the cars introduced on his watch were uninspiring lumps (Cobalt) or ill-advised disasters (GMT-900 hybrids, BAS hybrids). If I was considering investing in this (yeah, right a $180K sedan with no snob-appealing pedigree using an OHV engine), then I'd want to make damned sure that Lutz had plenty of skin in the game. Musk does. He made a fortune and he's put it back into SpaceX and Tesla. Then he made them both work, simultaneously. That's a great combination of balls and skill. Detroit should forget Maximum Bob and start studying Musk.
  
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- SCE to AUX on May 23, 2013
  
  @KixStart In defense of the Volt - heaven help me - its completion was also championed/required by the US government as a green cornerstone for the new GM. While its sales have been lower the projected, it's still doing pretty well and much better than I expected. Uninspiring lumps like the Cobalt are big sellers. See "Corolla". But I agree completely on Musk - he's the real deal.
  
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- KixStart on May 23, 2013
  
  @KixStart It was not "required" by the Feds. GM used it as part of a PR campaign for the rescue, trying to align the rescue with other Administration goals. Geithner merely didn't tell them to kill it, probably because GM showed him facts and fantasies that it would pay off or made a good pitch for how strategically important it is. The important differences between uninspiring lumps are things like their fleet percentages.
  
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Gasser on May 23, 2013

What happened to Lutz's idea to buy all the unfinished Karmas and put Corvette drive trains into them?

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- 95_SC on May 23, 2013
  
  Now THAT is something I would like to get my hands on.
  
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Star_gazer on May 23, 2013

@Jean-Pierre Sarti: Doesn't surprise me. Lutz as well as GM and Delphi have been going Chinese for years. In our plant a while back a display car had a Chinese transmission in it. Funny, there was no uproar from the UAW...

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