According to the Monitor Daily website, Navistar's Chief Executive Officer, Dan Ustian, has reportedly signaled his company's willingness to negotiate a potential buyout. Reuters reports that Ustian made the assertions during a December 15 conference call with investors.
"If you've got a lot of money, come over and see us," Ustian was quoted as saying in response to an analyst's question. An assertion that leads to the rather obvious conclusion that, once MAN's bid for Scania finally dies the death, it will have a bob or two burning a hole in its lederhosen.
The comments come as Navistar struggles with an increasingly dire financial environment. It hasn't reported financial results since September 2005, and further delayed its statements for the past two years, which prompted the New York Stock Exchange to announce it will de-list the company's shares by December 20th.
This move is now subject to an appeal, to be heard on January 30th. In the interim, Navistar shares will continue to be traded on the NYSE.
In response to financial pressures, exacerbated by a predicted industry-wide sales slump 0f 40 per cent forecasted for 2007, Navistar said it would lay off up to two-thirds of its workforce at its Ontario truck plant and make smaller cuts elsewhere.
In November the company received a waiver from creditors on a $1.2 billion credit agreement that covers a default due to its failure to file financial reports.
Navistar has blamed the delay on a disagreement with its auditors at Deloitte and Touche over "complex and technical accounting issues." In April 2006, the company fired Deloitte and hired KPMG, warning that it needed to restate earnings back to 2002 to fix accounting errors.