Investor Slams GenCorp
Hedge fund Steel Partners II LP on Thursday, Nov. 11, launched a $708 million hostile bid for GenCorp Inc., attacking the aerospace conglomerate for its subpar financial performance and questioning the company’s deal making record. “Management and the board appear to have engaged in what can be best described as a game of gin rummy by buying and selling businesses with no clear corporate strategy and with very poor results, including the recent sale of the GDX Automotive business at a loss of over $300 million,” said Warren Lichtenstein, managing partner at Steel, in a letter to GenCorp’s board.
Exco Sells its Paint Lasing Business
Exco Technologies Limited, which serves the die-cast, extrusion and automotive industries, has sold its paint lasing business to Emerald Graphics, a private North American automotive interior decorative supplier. The asset sale took effect Aug. 30.
Tech Camp Sparks Career Ideas
Gustave Sexauer won’t be old enough to take his driver’s license test for a few more years, but he already owns a truck and has been working on it with his father. Sexauer got to work with college automotive instructors during the 2004 Tech Camp held recently at Western Wisconsin Technology College (WWTC) in La Crosse, Wis. Students took turns helping to change oil, inflate tires and solder. Sexauer, who will be a seventh-grader this fall, had one reason for attending the event. “I want to be a mechanic when I grow up,” he said.
Gentex Named to BusinessWeek’s List of Hot Growth Companies
Gentex Corporation, the Zeeland, Mich.-based manufacturer of automatic-dimming rearview mirrors and commercial fire protection products, has once again been named to Business Week’s “Hot Growth Companies” list, which ranks the 100 fastest-growing publicly traded companies. It’s the fifth time in six years that Gentex has made this prestigious list.
Visteon Talks Continue
Visteon Corp. and union leaders were to resume talks Tuesday to try to end a 10-day strike by 1,026 workers at an Indiana factory, the union said. Management at the Bedford, Ind., plant requested a return to the bargaining table for the first talks since the walkout began, International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 907 said on its Web site.
Honeywell Receives APA’s Branded Products Award
Honeywell Friction Materials, which manufactures Bendix branded brake products, was recently recognized with the Automotive Parts Association’s (APA) Branded Products Award. The award was presented to Honeywell at the association’s 24th annual Shareholders & Manufacturers Conference held at the Wyndham Emerald Plaza in San Diego last month.
High-tech is Giving Drivers Another Set of Eyes on Highways
Advances in automotive technology are giving drivers another set of eyes. There is parking assistance that backs a car into a parking space, miniature cameras that help a driver see at night and in blinding sunlight, detection devices that sound an alert when a driver crosses into a lane without activating the turn signal or starts to get too close to a pedestrian.
TRW Gets Rolling: After a massive IPO, Supplier Faces Hurdles
John Plant, chief executive of newly independent TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., remembers when his company was a corporate stepchild. As the auto-parts unit of former industrial conglomerate TRW Inc., it didn’t get favorable treatment, even when it generated cash for the business.
BWD Automotive Announces Vehicle Service Professional Rewards Program
BWD Automotive has launched a new Vehicle Service Professional (VSP) Rewards program, designed to foster, preserve and enhance the relationship among automotive repair technicians, distribution customers and BWD Automotive. The goal of VSP Rewards is to provide today’s professional automotive technician with up-to-date educational and reference tools required by an increasingly complex automotive repair industry.