Reuters reports:
Trading in the shares of China’s top carmaker SAIC Motor Corp will be suspended from February 14 pending a material corporate announcement, SAIC said on Friday.
SAIC, the Chinese partner of General Motors and Volkswagen, and owner of the MG Rover plant in Britain, said it has been notified by its holding company SAIC Group that it is working on a major plan involving SAIC and discussions over the proposal are continuing, it said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
SAIC said it expects to make an announcement regarding the plan in five trading days following the trade suspension.
SAIC owns about one percent of GM, it is the majority owner of its Shanghai-GM joint venture and controls GM’s Indian-market operations… in fact, the last time SAIC suspended shares this way was when it took over GM’s Chinese and Indian ventures. So, what’s next? The mind boggles…
My thoughts are:
– SAIC will either buy a bit more of GM like Vauxhall/ Opel
or
more likely they will partner another car maker. Jaguar Land Rover are looking for a partner in China…
I suspect buying Opel, too
GM Holden will be next on SAIC’s hit list.
Speculation #1, Buy Saab!
Saab’s present owners are probably looking at their sales forecast and already have their hat in hand. The GM connection assures continuity and keeps GM/SAIC technology away from other possible Chinese suitors. Win, Win for SAIC, Saab, & GM.
Speculation #2
Create a EV battery/EV car division
But now GM are making money they don’t need to sell anything.
SAIC’s parent company own other auto companies such as Yeujin motors. It may be that they just plan to group everything together in one group.