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May 14, 2020May 13, 2020

In the market for a used car? You are in luck

A Hertz bankruptcy will flood the market with used vehicles

If you are in the market for a used car, you are in luck. That is, if you have a place to drive to!

According to the Detroit Press, used car prices fell 34.4 percent in April alone. The paper offers solace to it’s readers by mentioning that used car prices could go up soon due to a shortage of new cars caused by plant closures. The paper however, failed to mention the nearly half a million cars currently sitting ideal on Hertz car lots. With practically no one traveling these days, the need for rental cars has evaporated. Hertz (HTZ) and Avis-Budget (CAR) have suffered the most. Hertz has bigger problems than COVID-19 and that is it’s balance sheet.

There are several stories suggesting a Hertz bankruptcy is around the corner.

According to Bloomberg, Hertz’s situation is a three-way standoff between Holders of Hertz’s asset-backed securities. They could delay pressuring Hertz to sell down its fleet for a short period of time, but they will need Hertz’s banks to promise to make them whole. The banks, in turn, may not want to take on such a risk, which requires them to bet that either the rental car business or used car prices return to some normal operating level.

A 2-year price chart of Hertz (HTZ), Stockwinners

Meanwhile, controlling shareholder Carl Icahn (IEP) holds a 39% equity stake in the rental company. Bloomberg says that he could put in more money to keep Hertz afloat, but this once again is dependent on a belief that the rental car business will recover to some extent in the very near future.

In a bankruptcy, Bloomberg notes, equity holders’ claims would be behind those of creditors, which is not an incentive for Icahn to put in more money at the moment.

Used car prices have fallen sharply due to Covid-19

A Hertz bankruptcy could flood the used car market with several hundred thousand cars, whose value is likely to take a substantial hit at a time when used car lots are already quite full and demand is low.

Companies now deliver used cars to your home for test drives

Bloomberg notes that used car prices dropped 11.4% from March to April, while sales were merely a quarter of pre-outbreak levels.

Meanwhile Hertz has started discounting its cars on its used car lots and Hertz Car Sales. In fact, you can pick up a car, and they will deliver it to your house for a test drive. We have seen discounts as high as 25% on some models. The company carries brands like Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota and Nissan, to some luxury brands like Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz.

One more footnote to this story: auto dealerships usually set their used car prices as a function of new car prices. With most of the domestic auto plants closed, price of new cars (2021 model year) will not be known anytime soon.

Companies in the space include: Copart (CPRT), CarMax (KMX), Carvana (CVNA), CarGurus (CARG), Penske (PAG). AutoNation (AN).

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This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility.

January 14, 2020

Government forecasts steady energy prices in 2020 and 21

EIA says U.S. crude oil production will average 13.3M b/d in 2020

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) forecasts Brent crude oil spot prices will average $65 per barrel in 2020 and $68/b in 2021, compared with an average of $64/b in 2019.

Domestic productions to rise in 2020, Stockwinners

EIA expects West Texas Intermediate, WTI, crude oil prices will average about $5.50/b lower than Brent prices through 2020 and 2021, compared with an average WTI discount of about $7.35/b in 2019.

Global liquid fuels inventories were mostly unchanged in 2019, and EIA expects they will grow by 0.3 million b/d in 2020 and then decline by 0.2 million b/d in 2021.

The international offshore rig count for April 2018 was 194. Stockwinners — Production in all regions to rise in 2020, Stockwinners

EIA estimates that U.S. crude oil production averaged 12.2 million b/d in 2019, up 1.3 million b/d from 2018.

EIA forecasts U.S. crude oil production will average 13.3 million b/d in 2020 and 13.7 million b/d in 2021.

On January 1, 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) enacted Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention), which lowers the maximum sulfur content of marine fuel oil used in ocean-going vessels from 3.5% of weight to 0.5%.
EIA expects this regulation will encourage global refiners to increase refinery runs and maximize upgrading of high-sulfur heavy fuel oil into low-sulfur distillate fuel to create compliant bunker fuels.
EIA forecasts that U.S. refinery runs will rise by 3% from 2019 to a record level of 17.5 million b/d in 2020, resulting in refinery utilization rates that average 93% in 2020.
EIA expects one of the most significant effects of the regulation will be on diesel wholesale margins, which will rise from an average of 43 cents per gallon (gal) in 2019 to a forecast peak of 53 cents/gal in March 2020 and an annual average of 50 cents/gal in 2020. EIA expects diesel margins to decline to 49 cents/gal in 2021.
U.S. regular gasoline retail prices averaged $2.60/gal in 2019, and EIA forecasts that they will average $2.63/gal in both 2020 and 2021.

Oil Rigs, See Stockwinners.com Market Radar to read the latest on oil and rig count — Production to continue at record high, Stockwinners

Most of the production growth in the forecast occurs in the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico.

Publicly traded companies in the space include BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and Total (TOT).

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September 23, 2019

Aptiv, Hyundai Motor to form autonomous driving joint venture

Aptiv, Hyundai Motor to form autonomous driving JV

Aptiv (APTV) and Hyundai Motor Group (HYMTF) announced that they will be forming an autonomous driving joint venture.

This partnership brings together one of the industry’s most innovative vehicle technology providers and one of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers.

Aptiva scores a victory by forming JV with Hyundai, Stockwinners

The joint venture will advance the design, development and commercialization of SAE Level 4 and 5 autonomous technologies, furthering the partners’ leadership position in the global autonomous driving ecosystem.

The joint venture will begin testing fully driverless systems in 2020 and have a production-ready autonomous driving platform available for robotaxi providers, fleet operators, and automotive manufacturers in 2022.

As part of the agreement, Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv will each have a 50 percent ownership stake in the joint venture, valued at a total of $4B.

Hyundai forms autonomous driving joint venture, Stockwinners

Aptiv will contribute its autonomous driving technology, intellectual property, and approximately 700 employees focused on the development of scalable autonomous driving solutions.

Hyundai Motor Group affiliates – Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis – will collectively contribute $1.6B in cash at closing and $0.4B in vehicle engineering services, R&D resources, and access to intellectual property.

The partnership reinforces the companies’ shared vision of making mobility more safe, green, connected, and accessible by advancing the development and commercialization of the highest-performing and safest autonomous vehicles.

Shares of Aptiva are up 1.6% to $88.50.

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February 15, 2019February 15, 2019

Rig counts rise!

Baker Hughes reports U.S. rig count up 2 to 1,051 rigs

Baker Hughes (BHGE) reports that the U.S. rig count is up 2 rigs from last week to 1,051 rigs, with oil rigs up 3 to 857 and gas rigs down 1 to 194.

The U.S. Rig Count is up 76 rigs from last year’s count of 975, with oil rigs up 59 and gas rigs up 17.

The U.S. Offshore Rig Count is up 2 rigs to 21 and up 3 rigs year-over-year.

The Canada Rig Count is down 16 rigs from last week to 224, with oil rigs down 6 to 152 and gas rigs down 10 to 72.

The Canada Rig Count is down 94 rigs from last year’s count of 318, with oil rigs down 66 and gas rigs down 28.

USO is up 12 cents to $11.60.

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October 4, 2018

Toyota enters self-driving car services

Toyota, SoftBank agree to form JV for self-driving car services

Shares of Toyota (TM) are in focus on Thursday after the company announced plans to team up with SoftBank (SFTBF) to develop self-driving car services.

The news follows an announcement from General Motors (GM) on Wednesday that Honda (HMC) will invest $2.75B and take a 5.7% stake in its Cruise self-driving vehicle unit, in which SoftBank is also an investor.

TOYOTA, SOFTBANK TO FORM JV

Toyota announced in a statement that it and SoftBank will form a joint venture called MONET, short for mobility network, to develop businesses that will use driverless-car technology to offer new services, such as mobile convenience stores and delivery vehicles in which food is prepared en route.

MONET will provide coordination between Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform, Toyota’s information infrastructure for connected vehicles, and SoftBank’s Internet of Things Platform, which was built to create new value from the collection and analysis of data acquired from smartphones and sensor devices, the companies said.

MONET will roll out an autonomous driving service using e-Palette, Toyota’s dedicated battery electric vehicle for mobility services, by the second half of the 2020s, Toyota and SoftBank added.

The venture will have initial capital of Y2B, and SoftBank will own just over half of the business, which will initially focus on Japan and eventually go global, according to a Reuters report.

Junichi Miyakawa, chief technology officer at SoftBank who will be CEO of the new company, commented that “SoftBank alone and automakers alone can’t do everything… We want to work to help people with limited access to transportation.”

WHAT’S NOTABLE

Earlier this year, Toyota set up a new company dedicated to the research and development of self-driving vehicles, with plans to invest $2.8 billion to develop a commercially viable autonomous car.

RECENT PARTNERSHIPS IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

On Wednesday, Cruise and GM announced that they partnered with Honda to work towards large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicle technology.

Honda will work jointly with Cruise and General Motors to fund and develop a purpose-built autonomous vehicle for Cruise that can serve a wide variety of use cases and be manufactured at high volume for global deployment.

Honda will contribute approximately $2B over 12 years to these initiatives, which, together with a $750M equity investment in Cruise, brings its total commitment to the project to $2.75B.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund committed $2.3B to Cruise earlier this year.

Additionally, Renault (RNSDF)-Nissan (NSANY) and Daimler (DDAIF) are considering expanding their collaboration to battery and autonomous vehicle technology as well as mobility services, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing comments made by the CEOs of both companies.

“The industry being in transformation in the area of connectivity, autonomous cars and connected services, there are plenty of areas of cooperation for our entities,” Renault Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said.

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May 31, 2018

SoftBank to invest $2.25B in GM

SoftBank Vision Fund to invest $2.25B in GM Cruise

General Motors (GM) announced that the SoftBank Vision Fund will invest $2.25B in GM Cruise Holdings, further strengthening the company’s plans to commercialize AV technology at large scale.

GM will also invest $1.1B in GM Cruise upon closing of the transaction.

“Our Cruise and GM teams together have made tremendous progress over the last two years,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra.

“Teaming up with SoftBank adds an additional strong partner as we pursue our vision of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”

“GM has made significant progress toward realizing the dream of completely automated driving to dramatically reduce fatalities, emissions and congestion,” said Michael Ronen, managing partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers.

“The GM Cruise approach of a fully integrated hardware and software stack gives it a unique competitive advantage. We are very impressed by the advances made by the Cruise and GM teams, and are thrilled to help them lead a historic transformation of the automobile industry.”

The SoftBank Vision Fund investment will be made in two tranches.

At the closing of the transaction, the Vision Fund will invest the first tranche of $900M. At the time that Cruise AVs are ready for commercial deployment, the Vision Fund will complete the second tranche of $1.35B, subject to regulatory approval.

Together, this will result in the SoftBank Vision Fund owning a 19.6-percent equity stake in GM Cruise and will afford GM increased flexibility with respect to capital allocation.

The GM and SoftBank Vision Fund investments are expected to provide the capital necessary to reach commercialization at scale beginning in 2019.

GM (GM) Chairman and CEO Mary Barra confirmed the automaker’s plans to launch an autonomous ride-hailing vehicle in 2019.

President Dan Ammann noted that talks with SoftBank occurred over the course of several months. He said GM wasn’t looking for a partner, but found one that was “uniquely aligned” with it.

Ammann added that the Cruise team has grown to over 800 since the acquisition two years ago. He said the decision to report GM Cruise as a standalone segment is intended to enhance transparency around this part of the business.

ANALYST COMMENTS

Evercore ISI analyst George Galliers upgraded General Motors (GM) to Outperform from In Line after SoftBank’s (SFTBF) Vision Fund agreed to invest in the company’s Cruise autonomous driving unit in a deal that values the unit at $11.5B.

Galliers said he had been assigning no value to the Cruise assets before the announcement.

Under his new sum-of-the-parts valuation, Galliers applies a 6.0x multiple on GM’s core, attributes a value of about $8 per share for the Cruise assets and about 60c per share for GM’s stake in Lyft before applying a 25% discount to both of the latter. He raised his price target on GM shares to $50 from $47.

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