GM receives Gulf Arab, Chinese interest in Hummer buy
GM did not reveal the sale price — though in a bankruptcy filing GM said the brand is worth $500 million or less. The company said the deal could close by the end of the third quarter and would protect more than 3,000 manufacturing, engineering and dealership jobs across the country.
The automaker declined comment on the buyer, saying the party had requested anonymity.
"Hummer is a strong brand," said Troy Clarke, President of GM North America, in a prepared statement. "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."
06/01/09 According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, General Motors plans to announce a tentative sale of the Hummer brand less than a day after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Although GM won't release the name of Hummer's (possible) future owner(s) on Tuesday, the WSJ's sources say that a deal could be struck by the end of the third quarter and the H2 and H3 will continue to be produced at GM's plants in Indiana and Louisiana.
It's been widely accepted that if GM couldn't offload Hummer this month, it would be killed during the bankruptcy proceedings, and the General has been entertaining bids from a interest parties, including a Chinese firm, for somewhere in the sub-$500 million range since late last year. When the announcement is made tomorrow, expect GM to be hyping the sale as part of its turnaround efforts and that the SUV purveyor's new parent will continue to work on expanding the Hummer line, including the production of future alternative-fuel models. Wall Street Journal
08/27/08 General Motors Corp (GM.N) (GM) has received interest from two separate investors from the Gulf Arab region to buy its Hummer brand, the company's Middle East chief told Reuters on Tuesday. For sure, there has been interest from various parties within the Gulf … there is a precedent in the cases of Aston Martin, Ferrari or Daimler and those kinds of solutions could be very realistic solutions," General Motors Middle East Managing Director Terry Johnson said in an interview.
General Motors is readying sales documents for its Hummer brand and has initial expressions of interest from potential buyers that it hopes to develop into formal sale talks, the automaker's chief executive said on Aug 21.
Johnson said keeping the Hummer division was still a realistic option and that it was not a "foregone conclusion" it would be sold.
"Apparently, we have had two separate investors raise their hand as being interested, but I don't know what's happened since then," Johnson said by telephone, adding the investors were from the Gulf region. Reuters