General Motors may sign an agreement to sell Hummer to a Chinese machinery maker this week, two sources told Bloomberg News.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The report said executives from prospective buyer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, based in Chengdu, were expected to arrive in Detroit early this week for more negotiations with GM. An agreement could be signed and announced during the trip, one source said. It would be subject to US and Chinese regulatory approval.
“Since early June, when GM announced that it reached a memorandum of understanding with Tengzhong for the potential sale of the Hummer brand, the parties have been in frequent discussions working closely to finalise a definitive agreement,” GM’s Hummer CEO Jim Taylor told Bloomberg in a statement. “Negotiations continue to progress and the transaction will be announced upon the signing of the definitive agreement as soon as appropriate.”
“We are working through a process, we’ve been in frequent discussion to finalise a definitive agreement which will be announced as soon as appropriate,” Tengzhong spokesman Tim Payne told the news agency.
Chinese regulators have not indicated any problems with the deal, the sources said. Media reports in June had said the country’s National Development and Reform Commission would block the sale on environmental grounds and because Tengzhong lacked expertise in passenger car production.
The Ministry of Commerce had reached a consensus internally to approve the deal, the National Business Daily reported, citing an unidentified ministry officer.
Hummer would remain based in the US and was considering several US locations for its headquarters, including the Detroit or Nashville [also home to Nissan] areas, Taylor told Bloomberg in June.
Hummer would have 100 or fewer corporate employees and contract with GM for manufacturing, Taylor said.
