GM Reduces Bid For Daewoo

General Motors has scaled back a bid to buy the Daewoo Motor Company assets by a third, slashing its value to only $1.7 billion, as three years of talks with the South Korean automaker's creditors enter their final stage.

The accord, to be signed this month, lops $600 million from September's initial $2.6 billion pact, said Jung Keun Yong, governor of Korea Development Bank, the insolvent automaker's main creditor. Excluded from the initial offer are $260 million of debt, a plant in Egypt, overseas sales units and unsold cars.

?Most of the major terms have been completed,? a General Motors spokesman Rob Leggat said in an interview.

General Motors, which wants to use Daewoo as an export base in Asia, struggled since it first began talks in 1999 to overcome worker opposition and concern that the carmaker accumulated mountains of hidden debt. A successful sale would mark a breakthrough in efforts by Korean companies to sell assets overseas.

Author: Neftegaz.ru