GM had four brands to sell a few months ago:
- Saab
- Hummer
- Saturn
- Opel
All four have found buyers, but only two of those purchases and deals look to be reasonably solid at the moment – Saturn and Saab.
The deal for Hummer has hit a rather massive roadblock in the form of the Chinese government. BBC Radio reported that the government is frowning on the deal due to the nature of Hummer vehicle conflicting with the direction that they want Chinese companies to move in. The buyer, Tengzhong, say they’re sill on the case and negotiating with both GM and the Chinese authorities.
The deal for Opel appears to be far from done, with GM going as far as signing tentative agreements with both RHJ and Beijing Automotive just in case the deal with Magna falls over.
The Saturn deal looks like a solid one, with Roger Penske acquiring some prime dealerships with a pretty open field of vehicles that he can stock in them.
Of course, the deal for Saab is ongoing, but looking solid from where I stand. There are questions over finance, but I believe that the people involved are going to use their considerable energy and ideas to make sure this deal gets done.
We’ve already uncovered one of the legal minds involved with the process – Pranav Trivedi – who has extensive experience dealing with Russian business deals. That would indicate that there’s some Russian connections involved with this deal.
Karen spotted and article on the news wires today that mentions another of the legal team: Lynn Heistand. Like Trivedi, Heistand works from Skadden’s London office and she is mentioned in the AMLaw Daily site as their Dealmaker of the Week, for working concurrently on the Koenigsegg-Saab deal and a deal for Nortel Networks, being acquired by Nokia Siemens.
A weekly award from a blog is not necessarily worth scrapbooking, but her CV makes for some good reading and it’s just more reassurance that there are some clued-in minds working on this.
Comments are closed.