Shanghai, September 27 (Gasgoo.com) General Motors will be very glad to buy more stake in its three-way mini-van joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) from its Chinese partner Liuzhou Wuling Motors, GM China's chief told Gasgoo.com on September 24.
GM kicked off its "Drive to 2030" campaign on Thursday in Shanghai and meanwhile announced the opening of GM's China Science Lab in the city, its eighth research facility in the world. The company hopes to tap into the growing Chinese market by working on breakthrough technology.
At a 40-miniute media briefing during the two events in Shanghai, Kevin Wale, president and managing director of GM China answered some of Gasgoo.com's questions about GM buying more stake from Liuzhou Wuling and the Wuling-brand sedan project of SGMW.
He said that GM is satisfied with the current shareholding structure of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. Ltd, but will be very glad to accept the stake transfer of its Chinese partners if they offer us more. He didn't elaborate on the transfer talks.
GM owns a 34% stake of SAIC-GM-Wuling and intends to buy a 15.9% stake in SAIC-GM-Wuling from Liuzhou Wuling Motors. If the purchase is completed, the U.S. auto giant will hold a 49% stake in the venture, with SAIC controlling the majority 50.1% stake.
As the biggest seller of mini-commercial vehicles in the Chinese market, SAIC-GM-Wuling recently made the media headlines with two ambitious plans: to produce mini-vehicles in India (with SAIC in talks to buy GM's India unit) and to make Wuling-brand sedan.
SAIC-GM-Wuling has remarkable profit-making capability compared with GM's China passenger car venture Shanghai GM, so GM's plan to increase its stake in the mini-van venture will be a sensible move in its China strategy.
