Chinese Bidder Aims To Revitalize Hummer

收购了悍马(Hummer)品牌的中国企业表示，计划通过在中国和世界推广这个品牌和投资清洁引擎技术让这个高耗油汽车系列焕发新生。不过，从四川腾中重工机械有限公司(Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., 简称：腾中重工)短暂的历史中难以了解它将如何让通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)的悍马品牌摆脱困境。悍马车是按照美国Humvee军用车的概念设计出的一系列坚实笨重的SUV。这家主要生产自卸车等重型工业车辆的企业甚至在中国的汽车制造商中也默默无闻。China Photos/Getty Images腾中重工位于成都附近一座工业园区内的工厂。这家工厂主要生产自卸车等重型工业车辆。湖南长丰汽车(Changfeng Motor Co.)的一位高级技术管理人员说，当我早上听到这个消息时，我的第一反应是“谁？”，我以前从未听说过这家公司。这位拒绝透露姓名的管理人员说，这是家国有企业还是民营企业？它生产什么？从腾中重工的总部也难以了解到什么线索。它的总部座落在成都以南约一小时车程的稻田旁，厂房周围环绕着两米高的暗灰色围 ，而且有安全摄像头监视。腾中重工总经理杨毅拒绝透露对悍马的出价。在油价低廉和炫耀性消费高涨的时代，悍马曾经走红一时，但现在它已经成为了底特律商业和环境失误的象征。根据分析师的估计，腾中重工可能会支付2亿至3亿美元。杨毅拒绝透露公司包括收入和利润在内的任何财务信息。他说作为一家私营企业，没有这样做的义务。不过，在乘机抵达底特律不久后接受电话采访时，杨毅充满热情地谈到了他称之为体现了中国汽车用户新的探索精神的一个品牌。他说，我们对悍马感兴趣的原因是我们相信悍马拥有巨大的潜力和前途。另外，我们对全球和中国汽车业的前景以及中国SUV市场的发展充满信心。杨毅指出，尽管爆发了金融危机，但中国SUV的销售仍在高速增长。他说，悍马品牌代表了对生活的热爱，对生活品质的追求和冒险的勇气。杨毅希望将悍马改造为国际品牌，并增加在中国的业务。尽管悍马车打入了30多个国家，但它主要在美国销售。去年悍马共在中国售出了69辆车。他说，在中国扩大这个品牌是我们的重中之重。腾中重工计划向悍马投入巨资，使其成为真正的国际品牌。不过，杨毅最初曾表示，腾中重工不打算对悍马进行大的变动，并计划保留悍马目前的管理团队。他说，悍马仍将是一家总部设在美国的汽车公司。它的客户仍将继续享受相同的服务标准和质量保证，以及悍马品牌的价值。General Motors他说，从中长期来看，为了在当前的市场环境下重振这一品牌，并使其进入其它主要的国际市场，他和管理团队计划投入资金迅速开发新的清洁发动机技术。据业内分析人士说，腾中重工是一家私营企业，但有着密切的党政关系。该公司主要通过并购实现了扩张。2005年时，包括董事长陈实在内的投资者团体成立了腾中重工，同年进行了第一笔收购──收购了四川一家有着40年历史的机械生产企业四川长电电力公司。腾中重工从事重型机械设备的制造，着重于翻斗车和混凝土搅拌车等特种车辆，以及路桥建筑设备等重型机械设备。2008年杨毅受聘担任公司总经理。据一位公司代表说，此前杨毅曾是一家国有锅炉制造企业的党委书记。杨毅说，腾中重工将利用自有资金和银行贷款为收购提供资金。他说，公司与通用汽车签订了谅解备忘录，不过尚未获得中央政府的批准。杨毅说，所以我们仍在审批过程中。分析人士说，这桩交易在获得官方批准方面面临重大障碍。它与中国产业环境政策最近作出的调整相抵触。首先，悍马与中央政府鼓励小型车和电动技术等新型节能技术不相符。分析人士说，中央政府产业政策制定者正在推进加快中国高度分散化的汽车业的整合步伐，这桩交易可能在这些人中拉响警报。目前中国有80多家大大小小的汽车生产商在竞争生存空间。美国咨询公司CSM Worldwide驻上海高级分析师张豫说，这些都是腾中重工需要与政府谈妥的悬而未决的问题。他说，比如，中国中央政府最不希望看到的是，一家新的大型汽车生产商在中国国内冒出来。华盛顿传统基金会(Heritage Foundation)亚洲研究中心研究员史剑道(Derek Scissors)认为，腾中重工与政府有着密切的关系。他在最近的一份研究报告中说，该公司声称是私营企业，这遮掩了它过去几年来对曾是国有资产的收购，除非腾中重工与四川省政府有着密切的关系，否则这些收购是无法发生的。不过他说，北京可能会拒绝腾中重工收购悍马的申请，由于中资企业在收购外国公司中蒙受了损失，政府在其他收购案中也曾这样做过。成都的居民看起来对形势的变化吃了一惊。成都唯一一家悍马经销商的经理杨诚（音）说，我们都被这个消息震惊了。一群中国记者聚集在腾中重工总部的大门外，希望能获得一些有关这家鲜为人知的公司的有价值的信息。门卫对所有进出的车辆进行检查，对获准的车辆打开金属折叠门移开金属栅栏让其通过。从公司总部大楼外看不到公司名称或标志。公司所在工业园区内周围的公司大部分是生产化工产品和铜制品的工厂。从前门可以看到一幢大楼上的一个孤零零的标语，黄底黑字写道：让世界模仿我！标语是用来激励身着制服的工人的。Norihiko Shirouzu（更新完成）相关阅读四川腾中重工将收购通用汽车的悍马子公司 2009-06-03通用汽车能否凤凰涅盘？ 2009-06-04通用汽车兴衰史 2009-06-02通用汽车拟舍弃四大品牌以求自保 2009-02-20 本文涉及股票或公司document.write (truthmeter('2009年06月04日09:39', 'GM'));General Motors Co.总部地点：美国上市地点：纽约证交所股票代码：GM


The Chinese bidder for Hummer says it plans to give the gas-guzzling vehicles a new lease on life by promoting the brand around the world, including China, and by investing in clean-engine technologies.However, little in the short history of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. suggests how it might pull off the corporate turnaround of General Motors Corp.'s Hummer brand -- a collection of rugged SUVs based on the concept of the U.S. military Humvee jeep. The company, which makes heavy industrial vehicles like dump trucks, is an unknown quantity even among Chinese auto makers.'Who? That's what I said to myself this morning when I heard the news,' said a senior engineering executive at Changfeng Motor Co., a manufacturer of SUVs based in Hunan province. 'I had never heard of the company before,' said the executive, who declined to be identified. 'Is this a state-owned company or a private company? What do they make?'Tengzhong's headquarters, set in rice paddy fields an hour's drive south of the western Chinese boomtown of Chengdu, offer few clues. The spacious complex, a collection of production shops with dark gray siding and red trim, is protected with two-meter high concrete walls and monitored by security cameras.CEO Yang Yi declined to disclose how much his company is proposing to pay for the Hummer brand, which thrived in an era of cheap fuel and conspicuous consumption but has now become a symbol of Detroit's commercial and environmental missteps.According to estimates by analysts, Tengzhong is likely to pay $200 million to $300 million. Mr. Yang also declined to provide any financial information about the company, including its revenue and profit, saying it isn't obliged to do so as a private company.Still, in a phone interview soon after he stepped off his plane in Detroit, he talked with enthusiasm about a brand that he said embodied the new spirit of adventure of the Chinese car owner. 'The reason we are interested in Hummer is because we believe Hummer has great potential and future,' he said. 'Plus, we are very confident in the prospect of the auto industry in the global market, including the China market, as well as the development of the SUV market in China.' Mr. Yang noted that despite the financial crisis, sales of SUVs in China are growing rapidly.He said the Hummer brand represents 'love of love of life, the pursuit of quality of life and the courage of adventure.' Mr. Yang wants to transform Hummer -- a U.S.-focused brand even though its vehicles are available in more than 30 countries -- into a global icon and grow its presence in China, where it sold 69 last year.'Expanding the brand in China is an important priority for us,' he said. 'Tengzhong plans to invest heavily in Hummer to make it a real global brand.'Initially, however, he said Tengzhong doesn't plan to bring radical change to Hummer, and plans to retain Hummer's current management team. 'Hummer will still be a U.S.-based auto company,' he said. 'Its customers will continue to enjoy the same service standards and warranties, as well as the brand's value.'In the longer term, to make the brand viable in today's market conditions and to make inroads into other key global markets, Mr. Yang and his management team plan to pump money into a quick development of 'new and cleaner' engine technologies, he said.Tengzhong is a privately owned company, albeit with close government and party ties, according to industry analysts. It has expanded mainly through mergers and acquisitions, starting with Changdian Electric Co., a 40-year-old machinery company in Sichuan, in 2005, when it was established by a group of investors including the company's chairman, Chen Shi.It manufactures heavy machinery equipment with a focus on special-use vehicles like dump trucks and concrete-mixing trucks, road and bridge construction equipment, among other heavy machinery and equipment. Mr. Yang was recruited as CEO in 2008. He was previously Communist Party secretary of a state-owned boiler manufacturer, according to a company representative.Tengzhong would use a combination of its own funds and bank loans to finance its purchase, Mr. Yang said. He said the company has a letter of memorandum signed with GM, but hasn't obtained approval for the deal from the central government. 'So we are still in the middle of the approval process,' he said.Analysts said the deal faced major hurdles in getting official sanction. It conflicts with the recent changes in China's industrial and environmental policies.For one, Hummer is at odds with Beijing's policies encouraging small cars and new fuel-sipping or alternative fuel technology, such as electric propulsion.Analysts say the deal may also ring alarms among central government industrial policy makers who are pushing for an accelerated consolidation of the country's highly fragmented auto industry, where well over 80 auto makers of all sizes are competing to survive.'Those are open questions Tengzhong needs to settle with the government,' says Yale Zhang, a Shanghai-based senior analyst with American consulting firm CSM Worldwide. 'The last thing China's central government wants to see, for example, is a new major auto maker popping up inside China.'Derek Scissors, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's Asia Studies Center in Washington, believes Tengzhong has close government connections. 'The firm's claim that it is privately owned obscures [its] acquisitions of former state-owned assets over the past few years, acquisitions that couldn't have occurred unless Sichuan Tengzhong had close ties to the Sichuan provincial government,' Mr. Scissors writes in a recent research note. Still, 'Beijing could refuse Sichuan Tengzhong's application to buy Hummer, something it has done in other cases, due to losses suffered by Chinese firms in foreign acquisitions.'In Chengdu, residents appeared amazed at the turn of events. 'We are all shocked by the news,' said Yang Cheng, the manager of the city's only Hummer dealer.A group of Chinese reporters gathered outside the gates of the Tengzhong headquarters, hoping to gather nuggets of information about a company that few knew much about. Guards at the gate checked all trucks arriving and departing, allowing them through by opening metal accordion gates and removing metal barricades.There is no corporate name or logo visible from the outside of the headquarters complex. The company's neighbors in an industrial zone are mostly chemical and copper product factories.The lone sign on one building visible from the front gate -- in black letters against yellow background -- exhorts uniformed workers: 'Let the World copy us!'Norihiko Shirouzu