Ford Motor chairman Bill Ford on the automaker’s stock rally, PSPCs and investors

DETROIT – After a decade of mediocrity, Ford Motor shares have risen nearly 50% so far this year and on pace with their best annual performance since 2009.

Investors love CEO Jim Farley’s new turnaround plan called Ford + which aims to better position the automaker to build electric and autonomous vehicles as well as generate recurring revenue. So far, Ford’s electric vehicle introductions such as the Mustang Mach-E and the upcoming Ford F-150 Lightning have been well received by investors.

Ford Chairman Bill Ford said the company plans to continue its momentum through 2022 and beyond, despite a continuing global shortage of semiconductor chips causing production disruptions.

“When we brought out the Mustang Mach-E and then the F-150 Lightning, I think it really surprised a lot of people. Not just the fact that we released these vehicles, but frankly how good they were,” he said. he declared. CNBC. “I think you are starting to see this in the investor base. Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Ford, whose great-grandfather Henry Ford founded the automaker, recently sat down with CNBC to discuss the company’s stock takeover, turnaround plan as well as the acquisition companies for use. special and individual investors. Here are some highlights from this interview.

Ford said reinstating the company’s coveted dividend, which was slashed in March 2020, was “pretty big” on his to-do list, but he wouldn’t say when. Ford, chairman since 1999, and other company executives have said now must be the right time as the industry continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic and a global shortage of semiconductor chips.

“We plan to do it as soon as possible,” he said. “We have a very large part of the ownership of employees and retirees, and they also care deeply about the dividend.”

Ford said he was unsure whether all of the company’s emerging initiatives under the Ford + plan were reflected in its current share price, but he said investors were starting to heed it.

“Obviously, I think investors understand that there is real change underfoot, and that Ford is going to be a major player in that change,” he said. Adding later, Ford’s underlying business is “very strong” and the rate of change is higher than at any time during its more than 40 years with the automaker.

The company plans to focus on a more recurring revenue model as part of the plan, led by connected vehicle services and a focus on fleet customers, among others. This is something every automaker tries to do, as the industry invests billions in new technologies such as electric and autonomous vehicles.

The Ford family essentially controls the company through Class B preferred shares which give them 40% of the shareholders’ voting rights. It’s a system that has been in place since the company went public in 1956, but which all investors believe should not continue.

This system has faced many challenges from shareholders. At this year’s shareholders’ meeting, 36.3% of voters supported a system that gave every share an equal vote, slightly above the average of 35.3% since 2013.

Ford maintains its support for the dual action structure, saying it has been a “very positive thing” for the company. He said this allows Ford to focus more on the long term and not be another “nameless and faceless company”. He cited family control to help it avoid bankruptcy during the Great Recession, unlike GM and Chrysler, now known as Stellantis.

“We are not a faceless, anonymous corporation, and people know that there is a family, and in my case, an individual, who is going to be there through thick and thin, will not take a golden parachute and not will not jump, and cares deeply about the business, ”he said.

Ford, 64, has no plans to step down from the company’s board for the foreseeable future, although a younger generation of family members are joining the board. His daughter, Alexandra Ford English, and her nephew, Henry Ford III, were both elected to the company’s board of directors in May.

Ford, who joined the board in 1988, said the time had come for the two to become directors and learn the ropes. He said being on the board as a young executive with his father as well as his cousin Edsel Ford II, who resigned from the board earlier this year, brought a lot of value. .

“I wanted to offer them the same kind of mentorship as they move forward and start carrying the Ford family torch,” he said.

Ford, co-founder and partner of mobility venture capital firm Fontinalis Partners, said he was unsure whether PSPCs were a flash in the pan or here to stay. “I guess time will tell, but it’s clear that this is another route to liquidity that we didn’t have a short time ago,” he said.

Ford said many companies Fontinalis is involved in are exploring PSPC deals, while others continue to seek more traditional IPOs.

Fontinalis was founded in 2009. It focuses on emerging mobility companies. Investments have included Lyft, Postmates and the lidar company Ouster. Ford said he co-founded the company because he believed these mobility companies would play a key role in the future of transportation.

Whether Ford’s investors are institutional or retail, Ford has said he wants them to own the stock for the long term.

“What we really like, at least I will speak personally, are long term investors who want to be with us on the journey that we are on,” he said. “And if it’s retail investors or institutional means, anyway, that’s great.”