General Motors is in talks over the sale of the Detroit automaker’s medium-duty truck line – the GMC TopKick and Chevrolet Kodiak – to Isuzu Motors Ltd. in order to comply with the $13.4 billion federal aid package. GM would sell Isuzu the trucks as well as the Flint, Michigan, plant, which employs about 525 workers and produces about 22,000 commercial trucks annually.
GM had tried to work out an agreement with Navistar International but that plan would have moved the plant away from Flint. A sale to Isuzu would apparently keep the factory in Michigan.
“I think it’s great news,” Mark Hawkins, chairman of UAW Local 598, told the Detroit News.
The automaker wouldn’t comment on details of the possible sale.
“While GM is assessing various strategic options for the business, no decisions have been reached and there are no details to share at this time,” GM said in a statement.
GM has said it intends to raise $5 billion in capital by selling off its assets. With little success in selling off some of its mainstream consumer lines - namely Hummer, Saab and Saturn, the automaker is aggressively looking at its other lines. The paper says that GM could announce the deal with Isuzu near the February 17 federal deadline – when plans detailing GM’s viability must be presented – to aggressively show the automaker’s attempts to raise capital.
