Smart Distributor Reported to Have Won Bid for GM's Saturn Brand

The Penske Automotive Group, a car retailer that operates mostly in the U.S. and the UK and has the distributing rights for Daimler's Smart cars in the States, is the winning bidder for GM's Saturn unit, Bloomberg reported Friday morning. Citing a an unnamed source close to the negotiations, the news agency said that Penske will pay a price of $100 million to $200 million and that the deal may be announced as early as today. Earlier this week, General Motors announced that it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell Hummer to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. while the U.S. automaker that is currently reorganizing in Chapter 11 also plans to sell its Saab division.