Penske Entered This Car In 1966 Daytona Race
Roger Penske struck a deal today that will give him the Saturn brand name for $200 million, an amount that on the face of it has the look and feel of a steal. Bankrupt GM doesn’t break out financials on Saturn and in this deal Penske is not buying the 350 Saturn dealerships. And he doesn’t become a manufacturer. He will initially contract out through GM and later others to build cars for him, which in turn would be sold through those dealerships – and no doubt with Roger taking a slice of each car sold. He does own the brand, afterall.
The front page of today’s 
As the above chart shows, shares of Rio Tinto have been on a tear since it confirmed in early February a complex deal that would have raised cash to help it pay down a suffocating debt load. But that deal was at a cost some couldn’t take – a Chinese controlled miner would have significantly increased its equity stake in Rio Tinto and through a series of joint ventures, would have had a more direct stake in some iron ore projects, something many in Australia felt could be a national security issue by letting another country dominate a commodity market. So, Rio Tinto called off the deal with Chinalco yesterday and announced instead a $15.2 billion rights offering and a big joint venture with competitor BHP Billiton.
