Shaping Our Future: Bringing Suppliers Together to Affect Change”
The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) announced the theme and key issues that will be the focus of the organization’s upcoming Legislative Summit to be held on April 29-30 in Washington, DC.
“This year’s theme really says it all,” said Bob McKenna, MEMA’s president and CEO. “We have a unique opportunity to help lawmakers focus on the economy of the future and the important role suppliers have in that future as major employers in their communities and as leaders in developing the technology that is making cars safer and more fuel efficient.”
Valeo on Monday said chairman and chief executive officer Thierry Morin had departed “as a result of strategic differences and the will of the board to change the group’s governance structure”.
Pascal Colombani is now acting chairman of the board and Jacques Aschenbroich, also now a board member, will become CEO.
THE future of West Midlands van maker LDV and 6,000 jobs is hanging in the balance this weekend as efforts to rescue it continue. The former Leyland DAF firm is expected to run out of cash and close within days unless the Government grants it a 4million to 5million bridging loan. Ministers have repeatedly turned it away saying it is up to the firm's Russian owner to help LDV.
However, this weekend the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is sounding out two potential investors as to their plans before making its final decision. Cash-strapped LDV is owned by GAZ, a Russian automotive business owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska. The Russian group has said it can provide no further support.
Daimler, the German maker of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, said Sunday that it would sell about 1.95 billion Euros worth of new shares of stock to Abu Dhabi, making the emirate its largest shareholder at a time of extreme hardship for the global auto industry.
Aabar Investments, the fund of the Abu Dhabi government, and Daimler said in a statement that the injection of cash was worth $2.7 billion and that it “further strengthens Daimler’s sound capital base and offers additional flexibility to invest in new automotive technologies.