Gin ka Pakistan
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2009
- Messages
- 2,949
- Reaction score
- 0
General Motors has found a buyer for Hummer, a brand that was once a must-have accessory for the rich, but that came to symbolize the company's (not to mention the nation’s) attachment to gas-guzzling mega machines.
And the buyer, the New York Times reports, is a machinery company in western China, The Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in Chengdu. The Times cited an anonymous source after GM kept details of the deal very much hush hush.
The Chinese company will buy a brand that started as the military’s Humvee and morphed into a civilian dream machine. But GM is saying that the sale could save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at Hummer dealerships around the country. And it says the deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.
GM claims in its release that the buyer will “aggressively fund future Hummer product programs.”
GM will also keep building Hummers for the Chinese company, on a contract basis. That means that GM’s assembly plant in Shreveport, La., will continue to contract assemble H3 and H3T through at least 2010.
PickupTrucks.com’s Mike Levine reports that, “The buyer has a proven track record in international business, knows the Hummer brand can perform better globally, has a long-term development plan and is willing to invest in future products.”
The Times reports that Sichuan Tengzhong is a privately owned company known in China for making road equipment from highway construction to maintenance machinery and that it had been moving into manufacturing heavy-duty trucks. If the deal is completed, it would mark the first large-scale U.S. automotive acquisition by a Chinese company.
Levine reports that no Hummer dealerships will be closed, and that U.S. domestic production of Hummers will actually be boosted because the company will be moving production from a Port Elizabeth, South Africa, plant to Shreveport.
“Hummer is a strong brand,” said Troy Clarke, President of GM North America. "I’m confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership. And for GM, this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.”
For one Hummer dealer, it didn’t matter exactly who was buying the brand. What mattered to Jacques Moore Jr. of Moore Hummer in Richmond, Va., was that the brand would continue, and that it would be a strong brand.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he told bizjournals, “as long as they continue to build a world-class product that’s like nothing else.”
Moore said that, given Hummer’s strength in overseas markets, a Chinese buyer would not come as a surprise. "Given the strength of the brand in the overseas market it would not surprise me."
The deal doesn’t include Hummer’s military vehicles or technology. AM General of Indiana runs that end of the business. AM General sold the rights to make civilian Hummers to GM in the 1999.
The deal’s announcement comes a day after GM filed for bankruptcy protection and outlined plans to offload nameplates so that the company could focus on more profitable brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Among GM brands left for sale now that there’s an apparent Hummer deal are Saab and Saturn. GM wants to sell those brands by the end of 2009. The company plans to shut down its Pontiac nameplate altogether.
The New York Times’ DealBook blog reports that even as the Hummer sale goes forward, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said on Swedish radio that there were three potential buyers for Saab. Dealbook, citing local media, said that Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg and American financier Ira Rennert’s Renco were in the running for Saab.
GM says it has been approached by 16 potential buyers interested in the Saturn brand. That group includes financial investors and some companies interested in distributing Saturn vehicles.
By various accounts, GM has been looking for someone to buy Hummer for a year as gas prices shot to record levels and the public started to think in shades of green.
When GM looked into selling Hummer last summer, the company thought it could get as much as $500 million for the brand, the New York Times Dealbook reports. But that price has likely fallen as auto sales have plummeted.
Hummer sales are down 67 percent in the first four months of this years
http://bizjournals.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/stories/2009/06/01/daily2.html
And the buyer, the New York Times reports, is a machinery company in western China, The Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in Chengdu. The Times cited an anonymous source after GM kept details of the deal very much hush hush.
The Chinese company will buy a brand that started as the military’s Humvee and morphed into a civilian dream machine. But GM is saying that the sale could save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at Hummer dealerships around the country. And it says the deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter.
GM claims in its release that the buyer will “aggressively fund future Hummer product programs.”
GM will also keep building Hummers for the Chinese company, on a contract basis. That means that GM’s assembly plant in Shreveport, La., will continue to contract assemble H3 and H3T through at least 2010.
PickupTrucks.com’s Mike Levine reports that, “The buyer has a proven track record in international business, knows the Hummer brand can perform better globally, has a long-term development plan and is willing to invest in future products.”
The Times reports that Sichuan Tengzhong is a privately owned company known in China for making road equipment from highway construction to maintenance machinery and that it had been moving into manufacturing heavy-duty trucks. If the deal is completed, it would mark the first large-scale U.S. automotive acquisition by a Chinese company.
Levine reports that no Hummer dealerships will be closed, and that U.S. domestic production of Hummers will actually be boosted because the company will be moving production from a Port Elizabeth, South Africa, plant to Shreveport.
“Hummer is a strong brand,” said Troy Clarke, President of GM North America. "I’m confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership. And for GM, this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.”
For one Hummer dealer, it didn’t matter exactly who was buying the brand. What mattered to Jacques Moore Jr. of Moore Hummer in Richmond, Va., was that the brand would continue, and that it would be a strong brand.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he told bizjournals, “as long as they continue to build a world-class product that’s like nothing else.”
Moore said that, given Hummer’s strength in overseas markets, a Chinese buyer would not come as a surprise. "Given the strength of the brand in the overseas market it would not surprise me."
The deal doesn’t include Hummer’s military vehicles or technology. AM General of Indiana runs that end of the business. AM General sold the rights to make civilian Hummers to GM in the 1999.
The deal’s announcement comes a day after GM filed for bankruptcy protection and outlined plans to offload nameplates so that the company could focus on more profitable brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Among GM brands left for sale now that there’s an apparent Hummer deal are Saab and Saturn. GM wants to sell those brands by the end of 2009. The company plans to shut down its Pontiac nameplate altogether.
The New York Times’ DealBook blog reports that even as the Hummer sale goes forward, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said on Swedish radio that there were three potential buyers for Saab. Dealbook, citing local media, said that Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg and American financier Ira Rennert’s Renco were in the running for Saab.
GM says it has been approached by 16 potential buyers interested in the Saturn brand. That group includes financial investors and some companies interested in distributing Saturn vehicles.
By various accounts, GM has been looking for someone to buy Hummer for a year as gas prices shot to record levels and the public started to think in shades of green.
When GM looked into selling Hummer last summer, the company thought it could get as much as $500 million for the brand, the New York Times Dealbook reports. But that price has likely fallen as auto sales have plummeted.
Hummer sales are down 67 percent in the first four months of this years
http://bizjournals.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/stories/2009/06/01/daily2.html
Last edited:
