General Motors (GM) yesterday said it had called off the sale of a shuttered Indian plant to China’s Great Wall Motor Ltd (長城汽車) after they failed to obtain regulatory approvals, amid a tougher stance by New Delhi toward investments from Beijing.
GM struck a deal in January 2020 to sell the plant to Great Wall, with the Chinese SUV maker expected to pay up to US$300 million as part of a broader plan to invest US$1 billion to establish a presence in India’s growing auto market.
The agreement, which was extended twice, expired on Thursday.
“We have been unable to obtain the required approvals within the time frame of the deal,” said George Svigos, executive director of communications at GM International.
“Our strategy in India remains unchanged and we will now explore further options for the sale of the site,” he said, adding that the company “hopes to achieve a price that reflects the value of the asset.”
“Great Wall Motor will keep its attention to the Indian market in the future and continue looking for new opportunities,” the Chinese automaker said in a statement yesterday, while confirming the termination of the plant deal.
The Indian government did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.
GM’s deal with Great Wall was agreed just months before India toughened its stance in April 2020 on investment from neighboring countries, including China, making it the first major casualty of the move that has held up billions of dollars of capital inflow in sectors such as automobiles and technology.
This was part of a broader crackdown by India on businesses with Chinese links amid worsening diplomatic relations. New Delhi has also banned more than 300 Chinese mobile apps, including TikTok, over security concerns.
GM has to restart its hunt for a buyer, while it continues to spend money on maintaining some machinery and tooling in the factory.
Asked if the plant could be used to make electric vehicles, Svigos said it was suitable for a number of industrial uses, including by non-automotive companies, and GM would explore all options.
GM, which stopped selling cars in India at the end of 2017, has already sold its other plant to SAIC Motor Corp (上海汽車), where the Chinese automaker builds cars under its British brand, MG Motor.
This will also send Great Wall back to the drawing board on its plans to enter India, which it considered an important part of its global strategy to break into new markets like Latin America, Thailand and Brazil.
Last year, Great Wall reallocated to Brazil a portion of its US$1 billion investment earmarked for India and reassigned some of its staff after delays in winning government approvals.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS