GM Starts Fast with Daewoo

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS is reporting that even as the ink is drying on its deal to buy the biggest chunks of Daewoo Motor Co., General Motors said last week it will begin shipping Daewoo cars to Mexico as quickly as possible for sale there as a GM brand, most likely Chevrolet. The foray into North America will stop at the U.S. border, however. GM has no immediate plans for selling rebadged Daewoos in the United States, senior executives said in Seoul. "The possibility is only in the thinking stages, really," Chairman Jack Smith said in an interview. The quick decision to expand exports into markets such as Mexico, where Daewoo had not been present, underscores GM's intent to waste no time in getting its new acquisition up and humming after nearly two years of dickering with creditors. For the fire-sale price of $251 million, GM is buying a controlling 42 percent stake in a new company that will take over two of Daewoo's three assembly plants in Korea, and its sales networks in Korea and Europe. Daewoo Motor Co., which remains a legal entity, will keep the rest of its worldwide assets, although they most likely will be sold off or liquidated. By jacking up exports and reclaiming Korean market share, GM expects the new company that will be created out of Daewoo's wreckage to have annual sales of about $5 billion, compared with Daewoo's sales last year of about $3.5 billion.