Investor group hopes to save GM's Saturn brand

Posted May 4th 2009 4:30PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Competitive Strategy, General Motors (GM), Private Equity

General Motors (NYSE: GM) has already said that it plans to discontinue its Pontiac brand and that it's looking for buyers for its underperforming Saturn and Hummer brands as it scrambles to meet its June 1 deadline to restructure as mandated by the Obama administration.

Among the bidders for Saturn is an investor group made up of Saturn dealers and Oklahoma City private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC. Last month, the group said it had approached GM about buying the assets of the Saturn brand and the distribution network. GM confirmed it had been in discussions with Black Oak but said that other investment groups were also interested in taking over Saturn.

GM has retained S.J. Girsky & Co. as an adviser to help it manage the transaction, reviewing expressions of interest from the potential buyers. The firm is run by Stephen Girsky, a former Wall Street auto analyst who previously acted a full-time adviser to GM.

Black Oak-led group hopes to have GM manufacture Saturn cars initially, but in the long run they will outsource production to global manufacturers that would build smaller, fuel-efficient cars that cold be sold through Saturn dealers.

Tags: Black Oak Partners, General Motors, GM, Pontiac, Saturn, Stephen Girsky