SOURCE: AutoCar
Wagoner: 'Saab is not for sale'
12 November 2008
General Motors does not intend to sell any of its brands except Hummer, company CEO Rick Wagoner has confirmed.
Asked whether the company was going to disperse its brands, Wagoner told Automotive News: “Our focus right now in this regard is exclusively on Hummer. We want to see how that plays out. We are getting some interest in it.”
Wagoner said that the company has not had any offers for Opel-Vauxhall or GM of China.
“We’ve got some other assets that we’re looking at selling,” he said, “but not brands.”
That means Saab, whose future within GM has at times looked distinctly uncertain – and which has had the launch of its critical new 9-5 model pushed back until 2010 - will stay as part of the car maker’s portfolio.
The Detroit car makers are lobbying for financial assistance this year, authorised by the current ‘lame duck’ Congress, before Barack Obama becomes president on 20 Jan 2009.
Wagoner made clear that GM is willing to sign up to the same business restrictions that the banks have accepted.
“We’ve studied the taxpayer protections that have been employed with the financial sector support payments,” he said, “and those seem to be reasonable expectations, whether that’s warrants or restrictions on executive compensation.”
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