GM navigates offshore roads

GM has had a rough few weeks, with its share price racing down hill and increasingly frequent questions about solvency. So we note with interest the second sign in two days that the auto giant is looking to pump up its position in higher growth markets abroad. Russian car maker GAZ said today it plans to create a $1 billion joint venture with GM. The director of GAZ’s light vehicles unit, Leonid Dolgov, said the venture will produce around 300,000 cars per year, allowing the partners to compete with French rival Renault in Russia, Europe’s largest car market. Yesterday, a source told us Chinese pickup truck maker Hebei Zhongxing Automobile was in talks with GM and major Chinese automaker FAW Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, including possible equity ties. The source gave no specifics about Zhongxing’s discussions with GM, which runs two ventures with China’s top automaker, SAIC Motor, making cars and minivans. These are hardly high-gear moves, but could amount to welcome pay-offs if things in the U.S. continue to stall.

U.S. investment bank JP Morgan has held talks with potential partners about forming a consortium to break up British mortgage lender HBOS, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. National Australia Bank, named by the Telegraph as a potentially interested party, played down the report, while a UK industry source said HBOS had not received an approach. “We’re not sure this is a clever time to make acquisitions,” NAB Chief Executive John Stewart told reporters on Friday, shortly after NAB announced a further A$830 million ($798 million) in losses from its exposure to U.S. mortgages. Without naming a source, the Telegraph said JP Morgan had also approached private equity firms and may talk to Spain’s Banco Santander about a deal that would resemble the break up of ABN AMRO by a group of three banks last year.

The chief of U.S. hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, the largest shareholder of Cleveland-Cliffs, has begun pushing the iron ore pellet maker to put itself up for sale, The Wall Street Journal said. Phil Falcone, who wants Cleveland-Cliffs to take advantage of the steel boom, reckons the company could fetch as much as $130 a share, or about $14 billion, the paper said, citing a person close to Harbinger. The move comes a week after Cleveland-Cliffs said it agreed to acquire coal miner Alpha Natural Resources for about $8.3 billion to expand its coal assets and capitalize on the boom in the global steel industry. In a regulatory filing made after the deal announcement, Harbinger Capital, which owns about 18.36 percent of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock, expressed concerns about whether the Alpha deal was in the best interests of shareholders.

Other deals of the day:

* Korea Development Bank, Hana Bank and Kookmin Bank are providing a $400 million bridging loan for LS Cable Ltd’s acquisition of Nasdaq-listed wire and cable maker Superior Essex, banking sources said.

* Daimler, the world’s biggest maker of commercial vehicles, plans to spend billions of dollars to take a stake in Russian truckmaker Kamaz, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

* Nuclear operator British Energy has agreed to be taken over by French utility Electricite de France for around 775 pence per share, a source briefed on the matter said.

* Chinese state-owned commodities trading house Sinosteel has extended its offer for shares in Australian iron ore prospector Midwest Corp by a month to Aug. 25, it said in a regulatory filing.

* U.S. hedge fund Harbinger plans to bid for British satellite communication firm Inmarsat, pending regulatory approval, and combine the group with its SkyTerra business.

* French retailer Casino said it had raised its stake in Brazil’s CBD to 35.3 percent from 32.9 percent after it acquired 5.6 million voting shares at 22.9 Brazilian real ($14.52) per share.

* French IT consulting group Capgemini said it had agreed to buy Dutch IT services group Getronics PinkRoccade’s (GPR) Business Application Services BV (BAS) unit in the Netherlands.