GM Makes GM Daewoo a Subsidiary
05 November 2005
GM has increased its ownership of GM Daewoo to 50.1%, thereby making the Korean maker of small cars a subsidiary. GM increased its ownership from 48.6% by buying the shares from co-owner Suzuki.
GM Daewoo has become an important Asian production site for the Chevrolet brand. In October, 112,631 of the Incheon-based automaker’s vehicles sold globally, setting a monthly sales record for the automaker for the second consecutive month.
Total sales in the first 10 months of 2005 grew 27.3% on a year-on-year basis to 911,811 units from last year’s 716,222 units. The sales increase was attributed primarily to a large increase in exports of complete vehicles and knockdown (KD) kits.
Exports of GM Daewoo vehicles in October rose 45% to 103,123 units from last October’s 71,095 units, exceeding 100,000 units on a monthly basis for the first time in the company’s three-year history.
Demand for GM Daewoo products assembled at GM facilities in China, Thailand, India, Colombia and Venezuela fueled a big rise in KD exports to 50,774 units. This represented an increase of 80% from the 28,208 units exported in the same month last year. Exports of complete vehicles increased 22.1%in October 2005 to 52,349 units from 42,887 units last year.
GM Daewoo’s domestic sales in October rose 5.3 percent to 9,508 units from 9,032 units in the same month last year.
GM Daewoo was established by GM, Suzuki and SAIC in October 2002 to take over operations from the failed Daewoo Motor Co.
GM sees GM Daewoo as a production base for small cars in Asia, similar to its positioning of Suzuki, which its hold in the market in Japan, India and Indonesia.
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