WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday announced $13.4 billion in emergency loans to prevent the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, and another $4 billion available for the hobbled automakers in February with the entire bailout conditioned on the companies undertaking sweeping reorganizations to show that they can return to profitability.
The president’s plan gives carmakers until March 30 to restructure.
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The loans, as G.M. and Chrysler teeter on the brink of insolvency, essentially throw the companies a lifeline from the taxpayers that will keep them afloat until March 31. At that point, the Obama administration will determine if the automakers are meeting the conditions of the loans and will continue to receive government aid or must repay the loans and face bankruptcy.
The money to aid the automakers will come from the Treasury’s $700 billion financial stabilization fund and shortly after Mr. Bush’s announcement, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who will oversee the aid to the auto industry, said Congress would need to release the second $350 billion for that program in short order.
By law, once Mr. Paulson makes a formal request, Congress has 15 days to reject it and deny the additional money. It was unclear when that request would be sent or if lawmakers who have left Washington for the holidays, would return to debate it. The administration’s handling of the program has come under sharp criticism and several lawmakers in both parties have suggested they would oppose the release of more money.
Mr. Bush made his announcement a week after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to aid the automakers that had been negotiated by the White House and Congressional Democrats, and the loan package announced by the president includes roughly identical requirements in that bill, which had been approved by the House.
Mr. Bush, in a televised speech before the opening of the markets, said that under other circumstances he would have let the companies fail, a consequence of their bad business decisions. But given the recession, he said the government had no choice but to step in.
“These are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action” Mr. Bush said.
He said that bankruptcy was not a workable alternative. “Chapter 11 is unlikely to work for the American automakers at this time,” Mr. Bush said.
The loan deal requires the companies to quickly reduce their debt by two-thirds, mostly through debt-for-equity swaps, and to reach an agreement with the United Auto Workers union to cut wages and benefits so they are competitive with those of employees of foreign-based automakers in the United States.
The debt reduction and the cuts in wages were central components of proposal by Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who tried to salvage the bailout legislation. Those talks had deadlocked on a demand by Republicans that the wage cuts take effect by a set date in 2009, while the union had pressed for a deadline in 2011.
The plan announced on Friday offered a compromise between the positions, by making the requirements non-binding and allowing the automakers to reach different arrangements with the union, provided that they explain how those alternative plans will keep them on a path toward financial viability.
To gain access to the loans, G.M. and Chrysler must agree to a range of concessions, including limits on executive pay and the elimination of their private corporate jets.
Under the plan, Mr. Bush essentially handed off to President-elect Barack Obama what will become one of the first, most difficult calls of his presidency: a political and economic judgment about whether G.M. and Chrysler are financially viable. Ford is not seeking immediate government help.
If, by March 30, Chrysler and G.M. cannot meet that standard — and clearly they could not meet it today — the $13.5 billion in Treasury loans would be “called” for immediate repayment, with the government placed in priority, ahead of all other creditors.
In effect, the White House has required the auto companies to cut the equivalent of $13.5 billion in costs within three months, in order to repay the federal money and receive another infusion of capital that will keep them operating for the rest of the year outside of bankruptcy protection, or else providing financing while they reorganize in bankruptcy.
That is an enormous amount of savings to find in such a short period, industry analysts said, especially given the bleak conditions under which the companies are operating. Auto sales are the worst since the early 1980s, and there has been no sign that banks or the car companies’ financing arms would loosen tight restrictions on loans.
However, the car companies have already retained bankruptcy and restructuring advisors, who have been providing regular updates to board members on the steps the automakers would be required to take under a number of possibilities.
To avoid that fate, the companies will need to complete negotiations with the unions, the creditors, the suppliers and the dealers by March 30. Any judgment on the accords they reach with those groups will inevitably be both economic and political.
Mr. Obama and his economic team will have to make a convincing, public case that the wage cuts, plant closings and creditor agreements so change the landscape of the industry that the carmakers can turn profitable in short order.
But Mr. Obama will be under tremendous political pressure as well. If his new team concludes that the automakers have not struck the right deals, it would mean a move to bankruptcy court, and likely widespread layoffs that would ripple far beyond the companies themselves.
Mr. Obama was elected partly with the support of the unions, who liked his talk of protecting jobs by renegotiating trade agreements. Now, in his first months, he will be asking them to give back gains they have negotiated over decades.
Because the bailout legislation failed in Congress, administration officials said that the loan package would essentially take the form of a contract between the government and the automakers. Officials said they expected the agreements would be signed by the end of the day.
In recent days, G.M. and Chrysler have found themselves in an increasingly precarious financial position, with some industry experts predicting that they could not survive through the month without government aid.
Both companies have announced drastic cutbacks, including an extension of the normal holiday-season idling of factories, with some operations to be suspended for a month or more. Other automakers, including Honda and Ford, have announced cutbacks in production as the entire industry deals with the economic downturn and a plunging demand for cars among consumers.
Ford, which is in better financial condition that G.M. and Chrysler, has said that it does not intend to tap the emergency government aid.
Ford, in a statement, applauded the move by the White House.
“All of us at Ford appreciate the prudent step the administration has taken.” Ford’s chief executive, Alan Mulally said in a statement. “The U.S. auto industry is highly interdependent and a failure of one of our competitors would have a ripple effect that could jeopardize millions of jobs and further damage the already weakened U.S. economy.”
And while the legislation that was rejected by Congress would have created a new position within the executive branch to oversee the automakers, a so-called “car czar” Mr. Bush said on Friday that while he remains in office, the emergency loan program will be supervised by the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr.
In a statement, G.M. reacted with a mixture of gratitude and relief.
“We appreciate the president extending a financial bridge at this most critical time for the U.S. auto industry and our nation’s economy,” Greg Martin, a company spokesman, said. “This action helps to preserve many jobs, and supports the continued operation of G.M. and the many suppliers, dealers and small businesses across the country that depend on us.”
In a statement to employees, Robert Nardelli, the chief executive of Chrysler, said the company would hold up its end of the bargain.
“The receipt of this loan means Chrysler can continue to pursue its vision to build the fuel-efficient, high-quality cars and trucks people want to buy, will enjoy driving and will want to buy again,” Mr. Nardelli said.
G.M. and Ford shares rose sharply after the opening and Mr. Bush’s announcement helped send the broader markets higher as well.
But some critics of a taxpayer-financed rescue of the auto industry have warned that the money will just be wasted on companies who are suffering not because of the recent economic downturn but because of decades of failed business decisions.
Several Republican Senators who had opposed the auto rescue legislation wrote to Mr. Bush in recent days urging him not to tap the Treasury’s financial stabilization program to help G.M. and Chrysler.
Mr. Bush chided the Congress for failing to approve the auto rescue legislation, but he did not note that it was his fellow Republicans in the Senate who were responsible for scuttling the bill in what amounted to a sharp rebuke to the White House in the waning days of his administration.
The decision to use the Treasury’s $700 billion financial system stabilization fund was also a major turnabout for Mr. Bush, who for weeks had insisted that the Treasury program should not be used to help the automakers.
In the end, it was clear, however, that Mr. Bush did not want G.M. or Chrysler, both American icons, to go down on his watch.
Bill Vlasic and Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Detroit. 다음은 yomiuri 신문 http://www.yomiuri.co.jp 에 있는 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 【ワシントン＝矢田俊彦】ブッシュ米大統領は１９日、米自動車大手３社（ビッグスリー）に対し、金融安定化法を活用した資金繰り支援に踏み切ることを表明した。 米メディアによると、融資額は計１７４億ドル（１兆５５００億円）にのぼる。ビッグスリーが 米メディアによると、ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）とクライスラーに年末越えの当面の資金として１３４億ドルを提供し、その後、２月に４０億ドルを追加支援する用意があるとしている。ただ、来年３月末までに各社が具体的な再建計画を示さなければ、融資資金は回収され、破綻に追い込まれる可能性がある。 ブッシュ大統領は、「ビッグスリーは困難に直面している。破綻は好ましくない」と述べ、支援の必要性を強調した。 一方で、納税者保護として、ビッグスリーは、経営トップの巨額報酬の抑制や株主への配当禁止などの厳しいリストラを求められる見通しだ。 ビッグスリー支援を巡っては、米民主党と米政府が最大１４０億ドルの資金繰りを支援する法案に合意したが、上院で１１日、共和党の反対により廃案となった。このため、ＧＭなどは年内に手持ちの資金がなくなる恐れが出ていた。 米政権はこれまで、「安定化法は、金融機関向けだ」（ペリノ大統領報道官）と否定的な見解を示してきた。 ただ、支援法案の廃案を受け、「無秩序な破綻は念頭にない」（同）とし、安定化法を活用した支援を検討してきた。
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기사입니다.米大統領がビッグ３支援表明、ＧＭなど
に「つなぎ融資」
06151 서울 강남구 테헤란로 309, 1205호 (삼성제일빌딩)