GM, Sichuan Tengzhong make a deal on Hummer

The General Motors, undergoing a life-or-death transformation now, said Friday that it would sell its Hummer brand to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, a private manufacturing company in southwestern China.

The sale is deemed another step in GM's effort of downsizing itself after emerging from a US government-financed bankruptcy earlier this year.

GM's talks with Sichuan Tengzhong were disclosed in June, and the agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals by the Chinese government.

No terms were announced, but people with knowledge of the deal estimated the price at US$150 million.

Shedding the Hummer brand, a gas guzzling sports utility vehicle, was a welcome development for GM.

“This is one more enabler to General Motors getting down to its core brands and having a business that's better able to support the marketplace,” a GM spokesman, John McDonald, said Friday.