General Alexander Haig Joins SDC International For Tatra Acquisition
19 May 1999
General Alexander Haig Joins SDC International For Tatra Acquisition
PALM BEACH, Fla.--May 19, 1999--SDC International, Inc. (OTC BB:SDCN) today announced that former Secretary of State General Alexander M. Haig, Jr., has joined SDC International, Inc. as a Strategic Board Advisor.Haig is a shareholder of SDC and will be involved primarily in the area of foreign government and military sales of Czech-manufactured Tatra trucks after completion of SDC's planned acquisition of Tatra, a.s. According to SDC, the addition of General Haig completes the formation of SDC's executive board management team, whose members also include former top executives from the automotive industry.
General Haig is one of the most recognized American military and governmental leaders of the past fifty years. Upon graduation from West Point, Haig joined the personal staff of General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific arena. After having seen action in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, Haig was brought into the National Security Council by President Richard Nixon. Three years later, General Haig was appointed White House Chief of Staff. During his term in the White House, Haig played large roles in negotiating the Vietnam cease-fire and the return of U.S. prisoners of war. After Nixon's resignation, President Gerald Ford appointed Haig Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. European Command. Shortly thereafter, General Haig became NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Retiring from the military in 1979, he became President of United Technologies, Inc. Upon election as President of the United States, Ronald Reagan brought Haig back into the White House as his Secretary of State, placing Haig over all direction, coordination and supervision of U.S. foreign relations and over all interdepartmental activities of the U.S. government overseas.
During his tenure as President of United Technologies, the nation's third largest defense contractor, revenues rose by more than $3 billion. General Haig has, also, been a member of the Board of Directors of such companies as Chase Manhattan, Texas Instruments, Crown Cork & Seal, and ConAgra. Presently, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is a Director of America Online, MGM Grand, MGM/United Artists, Preferred Employee Group, and Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, and is a Senior Honorary Advisor to the Chinese Overseas Shipping Companies Group (COSCO), which is one of the largest corporations of the People's Republic of China. Tatra has identified substantial growth potential for its trucks in China and one of COSCO's entities is China's largest highway transportation companies.
In his association at SDC International, General Haig will draw on his extensive contacts in government, business and diplomatic circles throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, as well as in developing countries. According to SDC President Mike Srkal, "Tatra's heavy-duty trucks are very high quality off-road vehicles very well suited for governmental and military applications. We feel that having been a White House Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, president of a Fortune 500 corporation, and a United States Secretary of State, General Haig greatly assures SDC and Tatra of tremendous market growth, especially in the many regions where he has strong personal relationships." According to SDC, the targeted regions for large growth in Tatra sales are precisely the regions in which Haig is very much involved with sales of industrial and transportation equipment. SDC Chairman Ronald Adams also reveals, "General Haig's Washington-based company has been very instrumental in developing and implementing successful acquisition and marketing strategies, both of which are exactly what SDC's future requires."
SDC has assembled a top-level strategic management team to oversee the revitalization and growth of the hundred-year old Tatra, one of Central Europe's best known companies.
Last month, SDC announced that Richard Donnelly, former President of General Motors Europe, has joined SDC International's management team as a Strategic Board Advisor. Donnelly, also an SDC shareholder, had responsibility for GM's vehicle business in Europe with annual revenues of $25 billion and 80,000 employees. He was Chairman of GM's European Strategy Board and has been a Director of Saab (Sweden), Isuzu (Japan) and of ACEA, the European automobile manufacturers association headquartered in Brussels.
Two weeks before that announcement, SDC revealed that the ex-DaimlerChrysler manufacturing "czar", Dennis Pawley, had joined SDC as a shareholder and Strategic Board Advisor. Pawley is best known as the developer of the Chrysler Operating System, which is believed to be a key in the turnaround of Chrysler during the last several years.
Earlier this year, SDC reported that the Detroit-based Harbour and Associates, Inc. was an SDC shareholder and acquisition partner. Harbour is a prominent Detroit-based manufacturing and management firm specializing in improving quality, productivity and profitability of car and truck manufacturing plants. Their client list includes BMW, Ford Motor Company, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors Corporation, Fiat, S.P.A., Nissan Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation and many others. Harbour is, also, the publisher of the "Harbour Report", the recognized analysis report of manufacturing in the American automotive industry and which is the industry benchmark for international comparisons and analyses of productivity, capacity utilization and plant profitability.
Three keys to SDC's success with Tatra will be improvements of manufacturing processes, revenue growth of Tatra's three strategic automotive production subsidiaries which sell components to outside automotive and truck manufacturers, and consistent increases in governmental and military sales. SDC board Chairman Adams believes that "with this completion of our management team, all three of these key areas are covered".
SDC is currently in what it hopes to be the final leg of negotiations with Komercni Banka and Skoda, a.s., both of the Czech Republic, to take over controlling interest and to acquire all bank debt of Tatra, a.s., one of the leading specialty truck manufacturers in Europe. Founded in 1850 and currently a producer of approximately 2,000 trucks annually, Tatra's revenues in 1998 were almost US$240 million, with assets exceeding US$190 million. Tatra employs about 6,000 workers.
SDC International is a public U.S. based fully-reporting company founded to manufacture, finance and globally distribute high-quality industrial and transportation products manufactured in Central and East European countries. Upon the acquisition closing and consolidation of financial statements, SDC would be one of the few Bulletin Board stocks to rapidly qualify for the larger U.S. exchanges.