The Hindu Business Line : GM in talks to hike stake in Chinese venture

NEW YORK: US automaker General Motors Corp, which is lobbying for a bailout from the US Government, is in talks to increase its stake in a Chinese joint venture that makes small, inexpensive vans and trucks, a media report said on Wednesday.

GM Motors, which presently holds 34 per cent in the joint venture, SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Co, has entered into negotiations with the Government of Guangxi province in China to up its stake, Mr Hu Maoyuan, Chairman of Chinese car maker Shanghai Automot ive Industry Corp, the majority partner in the joint venture, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying.

The move, the paper said quoting people close to GM, is aimed at consolidating GM's ownership of Wuling and integrating it more into the GM group as it tries to use Wuling as a launching pad to get low-cost cars into other fast-growing emerging markets.

However, Mr Hu told the paper that Shanghai Automotive, which owns 50.1 per cent of the Wuling venture, was not involved in the talks. State-owned Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co owns the remainder, and GM apparently would be buying some of that stake, the Jour nal said.

An official at the Guangxi State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the regional government agency that owns Liuzhou Wuling, confirmed that it is in talks with GM, but wouldn't elaborate, the paper said. A GM spokesman, the Journal s aid, declined to say whether GM is engaged in talks with Liuzhou Wuling or the Guanxi government. – PTI

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