GM Hummer to sell for $165 million to Chinese
October 9, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
General Motors is working hard to restructure itself to become profitable once again, as part of that process it needs to shed its non-profitable brands as quickly as possible.
One of the lowest performing brands in the GM stable is Hummer which is expected to sell to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. for about $150 million USD ($165 million) either today or tomorrow, according to overseas news reports.
Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co has never ran a car company before so like everyone else, we are interested in how Hummer will look in the near future.
Previously GM CEO Fritz Henderson had estimated that Hummer may cash up GM by up to “$500 million or more,” a figure far from the current $150 million.
Apart from Hummer, GM’s Saturn brand now seems destined for closure as the deal with Penske Automotive Group fell through last week. Penske had planned to use the Saturn brand to sell Renault based vehicles but the idea did not receive approval from Renault’s board.
As for the sale of its Swedish brand Saab, our friends over at Koenigsegg AB should take over ownership after all the paper work is signed and finished by the end of this month.
GM is also dropping its Pontiac brand (much to the disappointment of Holden here) but maintaining Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.
Print it: 
“Music to my ears” as BIG TOUGH G.M. loose another one of their “Image/Cult” brands.!
A fond fair well to THAT other “Image/Cult” brand, PONTIAC. Which was really only a
Chevrolet clone[pretend brand] with a Pontiac badge.
Why bother hanging onto G.M.C that is just another Chevrolet clone too.!
150 mill is chump change in the grand scheme of things. I will be very surprised if Hummer remains viable over the next few years.
The funny thing is the sort of people who would care the most about buying a Chinese car, would be Hummer owners, particularly in the US. I just see a large part of their current customer base leaving Hummer in the near future because its now Chinese owned.
Not necessarily Tom; because the Chinese owners have already said that they will keep production of the Hummers in the USA.
Not only that but over the years there has been an increase in the sales of cars such as Porsches Audis Subarus Mitsubishis – all of which are foreign owned.. which kind of dispels your theory..
I mean a number of car companies design and build their cars primarily for US market
To say that is like saying there should be less BMW or Toyota owners because a number of their cars are made in other [less advanced] countries like South Africa and Thailand
I didn’t say American consumers, I said Hummer owners. Yes the majority of Americans have no issue with buying a foreign car, but Hummer owners are a special, particularly patriotic bunch.
I wonder when it will be Holden`s turn to be sold off to the Chinese?
ASAP
GM’s equity is at -90 Billion USD !
So I guess they jumped at taking $150 million USD for a dud division.
This is funny, cause over at the article about Toyota floormats, the Jap car haters are proclaiming how the mighty have fallen. I’d say selling off companies, profitable or not is a perfect example of how the mighty have fallen, not a floor mat problem. I would so love to see Holden sold to the Chinese, it would destroy the egos of Holden fanatics everywhere.
And probably spell the end to the Asutralian car industry when China moved production off sure.
Thousands of Jobs would be lost directly, not tomention indirectly.
Ford and Toyota would go down soon after becasue they wound be able to maintain the smaller parts manufactures which would close up shop.
Imagain the impact on the enconmy to.
STUPID STATEMENT THERE Carfanatic.
How so? Australian industry has been falling by the wayside for years, government and private investors blow the Aussie trumpet but don’t actively support business nor ideas or inventions. We only reap the rewards of the seeds we have sown.
Perhaps if the Australian public and govenrment got together when Holden are in such a state they need to be sold, we could actually be proud of the company, other than that, chanting how good something is, doesn’t cut it.
When a fully Australian consortium owns Holden then we will have reason to cheer, I doubt that will happen, but chinese ownership can’t be anyworse than U.S ownership. The Chinese are shrewd and would most likely keep the plant here in Aus, keep Aussies employed, so why not wait and see huh?
So despite the fact that they build some of the worlds most desirable powerful cars the Italians should be ashamed of themselves that Lamborghini is owned by a German company?
Or; despite the fact that they build some of the world’s most popular reliable cars the Japanese should be ashamed that Nissan is owned by a French Company?
Get real.. even though ALL of the Local car manufacturers in Australia are foreign owned.. we should be proud that their parent companies believe that its worthwhile to build cars here and are providing jobs to 100s of 1000s of Australians – not to mention the fact that still have a car industry
I’d probaby call it a disgraceful comment
FYI: We don’t hate ALL Japanese cars.. Just Toyota’s – more to the point – their deluded fans; who think that Toyotas are [somehow] more superior to ALL other makes and take any negative comments about Toyota as if we were criticising them personally.. and respond with personal insults and attacks.
you must be confusing them with the paranoid ford fan boys
All new cars will be spelt the same in the new future. C.H.E.A.P. No matter how much we pour into it Aussie manufacturing wont survive against cheap imports.
I think the comments about Holden being sold off to the Chineseetc.. shows how ignorant arrogant narrow-minded or short sighted Toyota lovers [who I suspect are the ones making such comments] really are.
It’s as if they think that because they don’t work in the Auto industry; if the local car industry did disappear that they and their jobs would be unaffected
Or that if Holden and Ford left; that somehow Toyota would remain.
Even though Toyo-Oz only replicate cars which are made in a number of other countries.. So if times got tough Toyota could decide to close down Altona
Particularly when you consider one of the reasons GM got in trouble was for having a number of factories duplicating identical cars
I suggest that all you Toyota fans learn or at least try to think a bit more laterlally / think outside the square