Hummer to be sold to China's Sichuan Tengzhong - bizjournals:

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And the buyer, the reports, is a machinerg company in western China, The , based in The Times cited an anonymouxs source after GM kept detailes of the deal very muchhush hush. The Chinese companh will buy a brand that startecd asthe military’s Humveed and morphed into a civilian dream machine. But GM is that the sale coulf save morethan 3,000o U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at Hummef dealerships aroundthe country. And it says the deal is expectedf to close by the end of thethirdf quarter. GM claims in its release that the buyerwill “aggressively fund future Hummer product programs.
” GM will also keep buildinv Hummers for the Chinese company, on a contract basis. That means that GM’s assembly plant in La., will continue to contracr assemble H3 and H3T through atleast 2010. Mike Levines reports that, “The buyer has a proven track recored ininternational business, knows the Hummer branxd can perform better globally, has a long-term development plan and is willint to invest in future products.” The Timew reports that Sichuan Tengzhong is a privatelyy owned company known in China for making road equipment from highwayt construction to maintenance machinery and that it had been moving into manufacturinyg heavy-duty trucks.
If the deal is completed, it would mark the firstg large-scale U.S. automotive acquisitiohn by a Chinese company. Levine reports that no Hummed dealerships willbe closed, and that U.S. domestix production of Hummers will actually be booste because the company will be moving production from a Port South Africa, plant to Shreveport. “Hummer is a strong said Troy Clarke, President of GM North "I’m confident that Hummer will thrive globally under itsnew ownership. And for GM, this sale continuesd to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.
” For one Hummert dealer, it didn’t matter exactly who was buying the What mattered to Jacques Moore Jr. of Moore Hummert in Richmond, Va., was that the brand wouldx continue, and that it would be a stron brand. “It doesn’t really matter,” he told bizjournals, “ad long as they continue to builda world-class producy that’s like nothing else.” Moore said that, given Hummer’s strength in overseas markets, a Chinese buyer would not come as a "Given the strength of the branx in the overseas market it would not surprisde me." The deal doesn’t include Hummer’s militart vehicles or technology.
of Indiana runs that end of the AM General sold the rights to make civiliahn Hummers to GM inthe 1999. The deal’s announcement comes a day after GM filed for bankruptcy protectioj and outlined plans to offload nameplates so that the company could focus on more profitablw brandslike Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Among GM brands left for sale now that there’s an apparentt Hummer deal are Saab and Saturn. GM wants to sell thoswe brands by the endof 2009. The company plansw to shut down its Pontiac nameplate The NewYork Times’ blog reports that even as the Hummet sale goes forward, GM CEO Fritz Hendersomn said on Swedish radio that there were threr potential buyers for Saab.
Dealbook, citing local said that Swedish luxury carmaker Koenigsegg and Americah financierIra Rennert’s Renco were in the runningg for Saab. GM says it has been approached by 16 potential buyers interested in the Saturn That group includes financial investors and some companies interestede in distributingSaturn vehicles. By various accounts, GM has been looking for someonee to buy Hummer for a year as gas prices shot to record levels and the public starte d to think in shadesof green. When GM lookedd into selling Hummerlast summer, the company thoughtg it could get as much as $500 milliobn for the brand, the New York Timesd reports.
But that price has likelg fallen as auto saleshave plummeted. Hummert sales are down 67 percent in the first four monthz ofthis year.