Three bidders with offers from US$100m to $200m in cash and other commitments remain interested in General Motors SUV brand Hummer.
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None of the bidders are automakers, sources have told Reuters. One bidder was from the United States and the other two from overseas, and they included private equity and wealthy individuals.
The sources also said terms being discussed would see any buyer take over GM’s liabilities for the 125 US dealers and also commit to further investments for the likes of engineering, marketing and sales.
The GM plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, which makes the Hummer H3 and the H3T pickup spinoff, would not be part of the deal, the sources told the news agency, adding that GM would continue making the vehicles there to supply the new owner.
There was no mention of the current arrangement where right hand drive H3 models for export markets are assembled in South Africa.
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By GlobalDataThe sources told Reuters that GM had only recently hired an engineering firm to prepare an investment plan for future Hummer models to submit to the remaining bidders.
GM declined to comment on the specifics of the process.
“We have received several strong bids for the brand and those are in the final stages of review,” GM spokesman Nick Richards told the news agency. “We are cautiously optimistic that we will report a favourable outcome to sell the brand in a very short time period.”
The report noted that any deal would leave GM as a Hummer manufacturer at a time it was under pressure to simplify its vehicle line-up and streamline engineering. The automaker cannot sell Shreveport because it also makes the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon in the plant.
Another source told the news agency that GM had rejected a bid from a Kentucky industrialist of $100m in cash, a commitment of $100m for engineering, assumption of an estimated $350m in dealer franchise agreement liabilities, plus plans for powertrain upgrades, including hybrid, after asking for the cash offer to be raised by $100m.
Investment bankers had initially estimated that Hummer could fetch between $500m and $750m, the report noted.
