GM to Sell Saturn to Penske: Report

Updated from 1:58 a.m. EDT

General Motors (GMGMQ Quote) will announce Friday it has reached a preliminary deal to sell its Saturn division to auto dealer Roger Penske, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

GM's deal will allow Penske, who runs Penske Automotive (PAG Quote), to take over the brands, trademarks, service and parts operations and distribution operations related to the brand. In addition, Penske will strike deals with various automakers, including GM and Renault, allowing him to buy vehicles from those auto makers' factories to fill out the Saturn vehicle portfolio, the Journal reports.

Penske will initially buy Saturn vehicles from GM that are already part of the Saturn lineup, but eventually branch out to purchase vehicles from Renault and its Korean Samsung Motors unit, the Journal reports. Other automakers could be part of the arrangement.

GM and Penske have a memorandum of understanding signed, and the deal is considered tentative at this point. The price tag on the Saturn deal wasn't immediately available, according to the Journal.

Meanwhile, GM's planned sale of its Hummer brand to a little-known Chinese truck maker could be blocked by regulators who haven't approved the deal and are questioning its wisdom.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery and GM have given no financial details about the planned purchase of Hummer.

However, any such deal would require Chinese Commerce Ministry approval at the provincial level at least.

Reports in the Shanghai Securities News and other state-run newspapers Friday said Sichuan Tengzhong had not yet obtained such an approval. They also raised questions over whether the deal will be allowed to go through, with one report likening Tengzhong's plan to acquire Hummer to a "snake trying to swallow an elephant."

The surprise announcement of the acquisition by Sichuan Tengzhong, a maker of heavy industrial vehicles such as cement mixers, has raised questions about the privately owned company, which has disclosed scant information about its ownership or finances.