Ford 2004 Annual Report Download - page 78

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NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Financial Services Sector
For additional funding and to maintain liquidity, Ford Credit and its majority-owned subsidiaries, including FCE, have
contractually committed credit facilities with financial institutions that totaled approximately $7.5 billion at December 31, 2004.
This includes $4.3 billion of Ford Credit facilities ($3.9 billion global and approximately $400 million non-global) and
$3.2 billion of FCE facilities ($3.0 billion global and approximately $200 million non-global). Approximately $800 million of
the total facilities were in use at December 31, 2004. These facilities have various maturity dates. Of the $7.5 billion, about
39% of these facilities are committed through June 30, 2009. The global credit facilities may be used, at Ford Credit’s or FCE’s
option, by any of their direct or indirect, majority-owned subsidiaries. Ford Credit or FCE, as the case may be, will guarantee
any such borrowings. All of the global credit facilities have substantially identical contract terms (other than commitment
amounts) and are free of material adverse change clauses and restrictive financial covenants (for example, debt-to-equity
limitations, minimum net worth requirements and credit rating triggers) that would limit our ability to borrow.
Additionally, at December 31, 2004, banks provided $18.0 billion of contractually committed liquidity facilities supporting
two asset-backed commercial paper programs; $17.5 billion supported FCAR Owner Trust (“FCAR”) program and
$500 million supported Ford Credit’s off-balance sheet wholesale securitization program. Unlike the credit facilities described
above, these facilities provide liquidity exclusively to each individual asset-backed commercial paper program. Utilization of
these facilities is subject to conditions specific to each program. At December 31, 2004, about $15.7 billion of FCAR’s bank
credit facilities were available to support FCAR’s asset-backed commercial paper or subordinated debt. The remaining $1.8
billion of available credit lines could be accessed for additional funding if FCAR issued additional subordinated debt.
At December 31, 2004, Hertz had committed credit facilities totaling $2.8 billion. Of this amount, $1.3 billion represented
global and other committed credit facilities ($708 million of which are available through June 30, 2009 and $560 million of
which have various maturities of up to four years); $500 million consisted of a revolving credit line provided by Ford, which
currently expires in June 2006; $215 million consisted of asset-backed letters of credit, and $814 million consisted of 364-day
asset-backed commercial paper facilities.
* Credit facilities of our Variable Interest Entities are excluded as we do not control their use.
NOTE 16. VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES
Effective July 1, 2003, we adopted Financial Accounting Standards Board Interpretation No. 46, Consolidation of Variable
Interest Entities, an Interpretation of ARB No. 51 (“FIN 46”), for VIEs formed prior to February 1, 2003. In December 2003,
the FASB issued FIN 46R, which revised FIN 46, in order to clarify the provisions of the original interpretation. As a result of
consolidating VIEs of which we are the primary beneficiary, in 2003 we recognized a non-cash charge of $264 million as
the Cumulative effect of change in accounting principle in our statement of income. The charge represented the difference
between the fair value of the assets, liabilities and minority interests recorded upon consolidation and the carrying value of the
investments. Recorded assets excluded goodwill in accordance with FIN 46.
The liabilities recognized as a result of consolidating the VIEs do not represent additional claims on our general assets;
rather, they represent claims against the specific assets of the consolidated VIEs. Conversely, assets recognized as a result of
consolidating these VIEs do not represent additional assets that could be used to satisfy claims against our general assets.
Reflected in our December 31, 2004 balance sheet are $4.0 billion of VIE assets.
Automotive Sector
VIEs of which we are the primary beneficiary:
The activities with the joint ventures described below include purchasing substantially all of the joint ventures’ output under a
cost plus margin arrangement and/or volume dependent pricing. Described below are the most significant of the VIEs that were
consolidated.
Ford Otosan (“Otosan”) is a joint venture in Turkey with the Koc Group of Turkey (41% partner) and public investors (18%).
Otosan is the single assembly supplier of the Ford Transit Connect and an assembly supplier of the Ford Transit van.
Getrag Ford Transmissions GmbH (“GFT”) is a 50/50 joint venture with Getrag Deutsche Venture GmbH & Co. Kg i.G., a
German company, to which we transferred our European manual transmission operations in Halewood, England, Cologne,
Germany and Bordeaux, France. GFT is the primary supplier of manual transmissions for use in our European vehicles.
Tekfor Cologne Gmbh (“Tekfor”) is a 50/50 joint venture with Neumayer Holdings GmbH, a German company, to which we
transferred our Cologne forging operations. Tekfor produces transmission and chassis components for use in our vehicles.
Tekfor was formed and consolidated in the second quarter of 2003.
We hold equity interests in certain Ford and/or Lincoln Mercury dealerships. As of December 31, 2004, we consolidated a
portfolio of approximately 135 dealerships that are part of our Dealer Development program. The program’s purpose is to
NOTE 15. Debt and Commitments (Continued)