General Motors has received South African government approval to buy the remaining 51% stake in Delta Motor Corporation, which it hopes to expand and increase exports, Reuters reported.
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GM reportedly did not disclose terms of the acquisition, but said South Africa’s Delta has been profitable since it was formed after GM left South Africa in 1986 during the apartheid regime.
“We’re looking to grow our business in South Africa,” Maureen Kempston-Darkes, GM president of the Latin America, Africa and Middle East region, told Reuters.
“We’re looking to use South Africa as a basis for growth in the African continent, and over some period of time, we’ll consider looking at potential export programmes that could take place,” she reportedly said.
Reuters said GM bought a 49% stake in Delta in 1997 when it returned to South Africa, and last year re-established the Chevrolet brand in South Africa while also selling Opel, Suzuki and Isuzu branded vehicles.
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By GlobalDataGM told the news agency the purchase of Delta, would give it a 10.7% share of the South African market, where 350,000 vehicles were sold last year.
Kempston-Darkes told Reuters that new car and truck sales are growing at a rate of 5 to 10% a year in the Sub-Saharan countries to which GM’s South Africa operations will export – Delta already exports to some of those countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Kenya.
