Robert Barry Quotes (27 Quotes)

A bank also seems absent from lists of possible buyers, which makes an investment-grade rating harder to achieve and lessens the need for a sale.

We reiterate our concern about the profit drag from selling fewer SUVs.

What investor wants to buy a company that sells plastics to GM when plastics are going through the roof while the prices GM pays go down

The ballot this year is highly complex. We are trying to make sure that people understand the ballot. For the first time this year, it is electronically readable.

Investors are anxious to measure demand for GM's new SUVs, but we think too few will have infiltrated the market to draw any meaningful conclusions before April.

This is consistent with growing press speculation that potential buyers are scarce.

Caution is warranted given uncertainty about the consumer, rising interest rates, raw-material costs and pricing pressure.

Another deal with Delphi is likely forthcoming, but probably not before Mar. 30, posing risk of Delphi motions (to nullify contracts) and starting the union contract cancellation process.

Comments today at the Geneva auto show that General Motors is in no rush to sell GMAC, and that a sale is not necessary before next year, suggest the sale process has stalled.

We doubt a buyer gets in front of risk that a strike cripples GM North America. UAW negotiations tend to go down to the wire -- now March 31 -- so a GMAC sale is harder to envision before sometime in the second quarter.

We think such a move would not occur if prospects for traction on the turnaround plan were tighter. The management change comes at an inopportune time given the challenges ... and severe stresses on the North American business, some of which will likely require longer term attention.

Plans to sell a controlling GMAC stake would likely boost credit ratings and cut funding costs, ... divert earnings from GM.

Pluralism has won today. I believe these elections represent a significant step forward in the process of democratization and pluralization of Bosnia.

The Joint Election Management Board has offered such a process and we urge that it be used,

These savings are a clear positive, but retiree liability cuts are likely to see some almost immediate offsets, from ongoing health care inflation, possible Delphi liability assumption and falling long-term rates.

We believe that GM's market share will continue to face persistent long term downward pressure, and that market pricing pressure will intensify over time, eroding GM fundamentals further.

We'd caution about becoming too optimistic given a number of challenges, such as very weak (free cash flow).

The employee discounts created a spike and now it's a case of the higher they climb, the harder they fall.

What it takes for the currency to recover, however, is that the markets have some confidence that things are going to be mended. The problem is that Indonesia did all the right things early on and announced a number of steps that would have led to more confidence in what's going to happen there and then they didn't carry through on it.

Growing fleet sales, increasing competitive pressure in large pickups and escalating risk of weaker consumer spending is likely to hurt pricing and revenue.

We concur with the Joint Election Management Board that the candidates' demand to nullify the election is unjustified,

Nullifying the election would not do service to the people of Afghanistan who came out at great personal risk to vote.

Ford's restructuring plan was widely anticipated, but was more vague and protracted than we expected, which is disappointing. We also see sizable North American share loss continuing, weighing on earnings and offsetting many restructuring benefits.

Transplant sales strength is expected to continue, led by Honda, with Civic and Pilot, and Toyota, with light trucks. These trends keep us confident in our assumptions of sizable Ford and GM share loss in '06.

We think one of the primary factors weighing on the company's equity has been concern about the Chapter 11 filing. We think the new bank line makes an imminent filing very unlikely.

The bottom line is we see little to no earnings growth in '06. Indeed, flat earnings may end up being a notable accomplishment, given the stresses the auto sector is facing.

By and large, I would have to say that the process was extraordinarily orderly, the level of violence was unexpectedly low and the polling station committees, considering the fact that they had never done anything like this before, did, I think, a commendable job,