GM Balks At Deal to Buy $1.2 Billion of Daewoo Assets

The Detroit News reports that General Motors Corp. wants to buy fewer assets from Daewoo Motor Co. than it agreed to purchase for $1.2 billion in September, complicating efforts to sell the insolvent South Korean automaker. GM doesn't want some overseas sales units and two overseas plants it had agreed to buy in September, said Han Dae Woo, an official at Korea Development Bank, which is handling Daewoo Motor's sale. GM declined to comment on specifics of the negotiations. The U.S. automaker agreed in an initial accord in September to invest about $2.6 billion with Korean creditors to revive Daewoo, formerly South Korea's second-biggest automaker. The Detroit-based company, which began its takeover bid three years ago, wants to use Daewoo as an export base in Asia and to increase sales in the region's No. 2 car market. "A delay in talks means that there are difficulties," said Lee Young Seog, an analyst with Dongwon BNP Investment Trust Management Co. in Seoul. "But eventually, a final agreement will be reached with General Motors because there aren't a lot of choices for creditors to take."