Ford's betting the keys to the house

My question: Is it to protect against Kerkorkian, or is Ford going to buy a Korean car company for a B-car?





Ford plans to get $18 billion in financing
November 27, 2006

By SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Ford Motor Company today announced that it is putting up its manufacturing plants and nearly all of its other assets, including certain intellectual property, as collateral to obtain financing totaling approximately $18 billion.

The money will be used to fund the company's Way Forward restructuring plan and to address “near- and medium-term negative operating-related cash flow,” the struggling Dearborn-based automaker said in a statement. Through September, Ford has posted a $7 billion loss.

The financing transaction will consist of several parts:

-- a new five-year senior secured revolving credit facility of approximately $8 billion that is intended to replace Ford's existing unsecured credit facilities of $6.3 billion;

-- a senior secured term loan of approximately $7 billion; and

-- an unsecured capital market transactions of approximately $3 billion, which may include unsecured notes convertible into Ford common stock.

The size of the individual components of the financing may vary depending on market conditions.

Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs Credit Partners L.P., and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. are handling Ford's secured financing deal.

Upon completion of the transactions, Ford said it expects to have about $38 billion in cash, credit and other highly liquid assets. Ford expects these transactions to close before the end of the year.

The move helps ensure that Ford has little risk of bankruptcy in any near-term scenario, said analyst Himanshu Patel of J.P. Morgan. "The magnitude of this financing also reinforces our view that Ford Credit is unlikely to be sold, at least for the purposes of boosting liquidity," he said in a note to clients.