A company spokesman has confirmed a local newspaper report on Friday that GM Daewoo Automotive & Technology Co. plans to invest $US1 billion on facilities and research and development over the next two to three years, Dow Jones reported.
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According to Dow Jones, the Korea Economic Daily cited GM Daewoo’s president and chief executive Nick Reilly as saying the company plans to finalise the medium-term investment plans in the second half of this year.
GM Daewoo spokesman Kim Sung-Su told Dow Jones GM Daewoo is likely to raise the funds through a loan from state-run Korea Development Bank.
The news agency noted that, when Korea Development Bank sold a stake in failed Daewoo Motor to GM in 2002, the bank agreed to provide as much as $2 billion in loans to GM Daewoo later if necessary to revive the operations of the Korean car maker.
Most of the medium-term investment will likely to go into developing new vehicles as GM Daewoo plans to introduce two new models in 2005, Dow Jones added.
Kim told the news agency that GM Daewoo aims to release a large passenger car in early 2005 and a sports utility vehicle later that year.
Separately, he told Dow Jones that GM Daewoo is targeting sales of about 400,000 vehicles this year, up 42% year on year, and exporting an additional 200,000 units on a knockdown, or partly assembled, basis.
During the first six months of this year, GM Daewoo sold 224,589 vehicles, including knockdown kit sales, up 3.2% year on year, Dow Jones added.
