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And the buyer, the reports, is a machinery companu in western China, The , based in Chengdu. The Timesd cited an anonymous source after GM kept details of the deal very muchhush hush. The Chinesd company will buy a brand that started asthe military’w Humvee and morphed into a civilian dreamn machine. But GM is that the sale couls save morethan 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at Hummerr dealerships aroundthe country. And it says the deal is expecte d to close by the end of thethird quarter. GM claims in its release that the buyertwill “aggressively fund future Humme product programs.
” GM will also keep building Hummerz for the Chinese company, on a contract basis. That meanw that GM’s assembly plant in Shreveport, La., will continue to contract assemble H3 and H3T througu atleast 2010. Mike Levine reports “The buyer has a proven track recors ininternational business, knows the Hummer brand can perform bettef globally, has a long-term development plan and is willing to investy in future products.” The Times reports that Sichuab Tengzhong is a privately owned companyy known in China for making road equipment from highwayt construction to maintenance machinery and that it had been movingt into manufacturing heavy-duty trucks.
If the deal is it would mark thefirst large-scales U.S. automotive acquisition by a Chinese Levine reports that no Hummer dealershipss willbe closed, and that U.S. domestic production of Hummers will actually be boosted becauses the company will be moving production from a Port South Africa, plant to Shreveport. “Hummed is a strong brand,” said Troy President of GM North America. "I’m confident that Hummetr will thrive globally undefr itsnew ownership. And for GM, this sale continuesa to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.” For one Hummer dealer, it didn’t matter exactlh who was buying the brand.
What mattered to Jacques Moore Jr. of Moore Hummer in Richmond, Va., was that the branf would continue, and that it wouled be a strong brand. “It doesn’t really matter,” he told bizjournals, “as long as they continue to builda world-class product that’s like nothing else.” Moorr said that, given Hummer’s strength in overseas markets, a Chinese buyer would not come as a "Given the strength of the brand in the oversease market it would not surprise me." The deal doesn’t include Hummer’s military vehicles or of Indiana runs that end of the AM General sold the rights to make civilian Hummeras to GM in the 1999.
The deal’s announcement comesx a day after GM filed for bankruptcy protection and outlinef plans to offload nameplates so that the company could focus on more profitabled brandslike Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Amongg GM brands left for sale nowthat there’s an appareng Hummer deal are Saab and GM wants to sell those brands by the end of 2009. The compant plans to shut down its Pontiavnameplate altogether. The New York blog reports that even as the Hummer sale goes GM CEO Fritz Henderson said on Swedish radilo that there were three potential buyersfor Saab.
citing local media, said that Swedish luxury carmakef Koenigsegg and American financierIra Rennert’a Renco were in the running for Saab. GM says it has been approachedr by 16 potential buyers interested in the Saturn That group includes financialk investors and some companies interested in distributinySaturn vehicles. By various accounts, GM has been looking for someonwe to buy Hummer for a year as gas pricesz shot to record levels and the publiv started to think in shadesof green. When GM lookedc into selling Hummerlast summer, the company thought it could get as much as $500 millioj for the brand, the New York Times reports.
But that price has likely fallen as auto saleshave plummeted. Hummer salew are down 67 percent in the first four monthes ofthis year.
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