GM likely to stay put in Detroit

CEO Fritz Henderson says GM has no plans to leave its headquarters in the Motor City, despite speculation of a move and greater success overseas.

EMAIL  |   PRINT  |   SHARE  |   RSS
 
google my aol my msn my yahoo! netvibes
Paste this link into your favorite RSS desktop reader
See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close)
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

CEO Fritz Henderson says GM has no plans to move its headquarters out of downtown Detroit.
CEO Fritz Henderson says GM has no plans to move its headquarters out of downtown Detroit.
Which of these car companies will continue to operate in one form or another?
  • General Motors
  • Chrysler
  • Both
  • Neither

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors intends to keep its headquarters in Detroit, even though its U.S. operations are in far worse shape than some of its growing overseas units, CEO Fritz Henderson said Monday.

At a press conference Monday Henderson was asked about speculation that the company might move its headquarters away from its long-time home as part of the reorganization process it is now completing.

While Henderson said all options are being examined as part of the company's turnaround efforts, he said "we don't have any such plans" to move out of Detroit currently.

He added that if GM (GM, Fortune 500) determined that there are efficiency and cost advantages to moving, it would consider a move. But with the company trying to stem years of market share and financial losses, Henderson said that exploring a move is not a priority at this time.

"It's not like we have that queued up on the top of our list," he said. "We're proud to be here."

Only 26% of GM's worldwide sales in the first quarter came from the United States, down from 36% in the same period a year ago. The company sold only about 20,000 fewer vehicles in China than it did in the U.S. in April, prompting some to speculate that moving GM's headquarters overseas would be a good idea for the company.

In other comments Monday, Henderson repeated his earlier statements that he believes a bankruptcy filing is now "probable" as the company tries to reach agreements with creditors, the United Auto Workers union and its dealership base to cut costs.

The company has been given until the end of the month by the Treasury Department to reach those agreements or file for bankruptcy.

GM rival Chrysler LLC was forced into bankruptcy last month after failing to reach a deal with all its lenders. However, the company did reach agreements with the federal government, unions, some lenders and Italian automaker Fiat to keep the company from being shut down.

Henderson said if GM files for bankruptcy, it is possible that only its U.S. or North American operations would be in bankruptcy while its worldwide operations would not be forced to operate under bankruptcy protection. But nothing is certain just yet.

GM has received $15.4 billion in assistance so far from the U.S. Treasury and has said it'll need another $2.6 billion in help this month to keep paying its bills. GM will also need $9 billion to get it through the remainder of the year. The company announced last week that it lost $6 billion in the first quarter and burned through more than $10 billion in cash during that period.

Henderson said that there are ongoing talks taking place with the UAW, and that he is open to scaling back plans to import about 7.5% of the vehicles sold in the U.S. from non-North American plans by 2014. The union has been critical of those plans.

He also said dealers that GM is looking to cut ties with would start being notified of the company's plans later this week, but that the wind-down process of those locations being cut would take the rest of this year.

GM announced last month that it intended to cut its dealership base by 42%, to just 3,600, by the end of 2010.  To top of page

Features
They're hiring!These Fortune 100 employers have at least 350 openings each. What are they looking for in a new hire? More
If the Fortune 500 were a country...It would be the world's second-biggest economy. See how big companies' sales stack up against GDP over the past decade. More
Sponsored By:
More Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More
Sponsors
Worry about the hackers you don't know 
Crime syndicates and government organizations pose a much greater cyber threat than renegade hacker groups like Anonymous. Play
GE CEO: Bringing jobs back to the U.S. 
Jeff Immelt says the U.S. is a cost competitive market for advanced manufacturing and that GE is bringing jobs back from Mexico. Play
Hamster wheel and wedgie-powered transit 
Red Bull Creation challenges hackers and engineers to invent new modes of transportation. Play

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.