A DAY after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors (GM) said yesterday that it had found potential buyers for three of the brands the struggling car giant wants to shed.
GM said it had a memorandum of understanding to sell the Hummer brand of SUV’s and that there were numerous potential bidders for its Saab and Saturn brands.
US media reports identified China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery as the buyer of Hummer, and a formal announcement of the deal was expected last night.
Under the deal, Hummer will continue to contract vehicle manufacturing and business services from GM during a transitional period. GM said the sale would save more than 3,000 US jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships.
The company said 16 buyers were interested in buying its Saturn brand, and three parties were looking at buying Saab.
GM hopes to emerge from bankruptcy protection within two or three months as a leaner, more competitive car manufacturer which will concentrate on producing Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC vehicles.
Meanwhile, German chancellor Angela Merkel has moved to calm foreign criticism of her government’s intervention to save Opel from the insolvency proceedings of its parent GM.
In a last-minute weekend deal, Berlin agreed an urgent cash injection of €1.5 billion in exchange for temporary control of Opel while the sale is finalised between GM and the preferred bidder, car-parts company Magna.
“We had a special case with Opel,” said Dr Merkel in a speech at Berlin’s Adlon Hotel, where GM and Magna hammered out the terms of a letter of intent on Friday.
Her remark was seen as a signal to her coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), to ignore the temptation of further promises of state aid. Already a who’s who of German businesses are hoping for further state hand-outs.
Heading the queue for aid is the troubled Arcandor group, owner of Thomas Cook and the Karstadt department stores, which employs twice as many people in Germany as Opel and says that without a state loan of €650 million it will go bankrupt on June 12th.
The EU’s anti-trust authorities said they would examine the legality of Germany’s €1.5 billion bridging loan to Opel, €300 million of which was drawn down yesterday.
Meanwhile the German state trustee that took temporary control of Opel has said it wants to offload the company within six months. “One should expect an engagement of three to six months,” said Alfred Hagebusch, an expert in insolvency prevention and chairman of the trust created to protect Opel from GM’s insolvency.
Berlin wants GM to agree a quick sale of Opel to Canadian car-parts company Magna and two Russian partners, GAZ car company and the state-controlled Sberbank.
Sales of GM vehicles fell 30 per cent in May compared to a year ago but were up 11 per cent from April. Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn and Saab brands were the company’s worst performers, with Saturn sales falling by 56 per cent compared to last year, and Pontiac sales down 52 per cent.
Ford, alone among the big three US carmakers in surviving without government help, said yesterday that its US sales fell 24 per cent in May from a year ago. Ford sales rose 20 per cent from April as the car manufacturer continues to gain market share from its competitors GM and Chrysler.
