General China business is not affected by IPO SAIC or may be involved

According to foreign reports, US General Motors filed an initial public offering (IPO) application with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the 18th, regarding the impact of IPO on GM China and GM’s attitude towards China’s largest partner, SAIC, on the IPO. The reporter interviewed General China. President Gan Wenwei and SAIC Chairman Hu Maoyuan.

In an interview with the reporter, Gan Wenwei, president of GM China, said that the GM China business will not be affected by the US general IPO. He further explained that because GM China's business is relatively independent and self-contained, U.S. General Motors will not step in too much in its daily operations.

Industry analysts pointed out that as GM is expected to be the first IPO, as its global strategic partner, Shanghai Automotive is expected to become an institutional investor in the IPO process. In this IPO, 10% to 30% of stocks will be for institutional investors. For Shanghai Automotive Group, funding is not the biggest problem.

Regarding the issue of U.S. GM's IPO application, SAIC Chairman Hu Maoyuan told reporters that even though it is a cooperative partner, the U.S. general IPO has no effect on SAIC, but SAIC Group is sure that its partner IPO will be successful. Regarding whether he will participate in the general IPO, Hu Maoyuan stated that although no decision has yet been made, as long as it can achieve a win-win situation, it does not rule out the possibility of participating in investment.

Objectively speaking, although neither SAIC nor GM said that the business will not be affected by the general IPO, the global sales comparison from GM in the United States and a series of GM initiatives in China, including forward-looking R&D centers and the joint development of new ones with SAIC A generation of powertrains and so on have shown that U.S. General Motors has begun to focus its international business on China. The move by GM of the GMIO of the Overseas Business Unit to Shanghai has also demonstrated its emphasis on the Chinese market. Objectively, the GM headquarters hopes to have more influence on China's business.

As of July, GM sold a total of 1.276 million vehicles in the United States. Compared with 22.9% YoY growth for the same period in Ford, the former only increased by 13%. Its performance in Europe has deteriorated even further. In the first half of the year, GM’s European market share fell from 9.0% in 2009 to 8.1%, and its sales volume also fell by 9.7% to 607,000 vehicles, of which Opel and Vauxhall’s decline even exceeded. Saab brand took over by Spyker. However, in the Chinese market, in the first seven months of 2010, cumulative sales of General Motors and its joint ventures have reached 1.385 million, a sharp increase of 44.5% over the same period in 2009, making it the world's largest market.