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Humvee maker AM General reportedly for sale, with interest from FCA, GM

WASHINGTON — AM General has put itself up for sale and has hired investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd to seek potential bidders in a deal that could value the builder of Humvee military vehicles at more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said this week. Potential bidders include competitors in the military ground vehicle market, such as General Dynamics, Oshkosh Corp and BAE Systems, according to two people familiar with the matter. Automakers like Fiat Chrysler and General Motors may also be potential buyers. GM licensed Hummer from AM General in 1998 to build civilian SUVs. None of the companies would comment or reply to a request for comment. The South Bend, Indiana-based AM General is currently owned by private equity firms. A possible sale of AM General follows a rash of deals over the past 18 months among defense contractors. But relatively fewer makers of defense equipment have gone on the auction block. Last year, United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins for $30 billion, and in March, TransDigm Group continued its acquisition spree with a $525 million deal for Extant Components Group. AM General could fetch about 10 times its annual earnings of $160 million, one of the people said. The company's favorable tax treatment because of its current status as an limited liability corporation, would allow a buyer to reduce the company's taxable earnings for 15 years. That coupled with recent contract awards could push the ultimate value of the company to over $2 billion in a sale. The sale, should it happen, comes as the U.S. Army is gearing up for a broad effort to modernize its forces, including seeking prototypes of its Next-Generation Combat Vehicle in fiscal year 2022. Last month, AM General was awarded an Army contract for as many as 2,800 new M997A3 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) ambulances. The contract could be worth as much as $800 million if all options were exercised, AM General said at the time. Last year, the Pentagon awarded AM General a $550 million contract to deliver HMMWVs for use as protected weapons carriers, cargo transporters and ambulances to Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Jordan, Slovenia, Bahrain, Columbia, Bosnia and Kenya as a part of a larger Foreign Military Sales agreement. The sale of AM General offers an opportunity to purchase a prime contractor that delivers a finished product to the Pentagon, and not just an add-on system or service.

Humvees are now exported to China by Bob Lutz and Henrik Fisker's company

At Auto Shanghai, a company called Humvee Export showed off its Humvee C-Series. It's not a new design, of course, as the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) has been used by the American military for decades, and versions made their way into the hands of civilians through multiple means, including via General Motors as the Hummer H1. GM discontinued the H1 in 2006, and shuttered the Hummer brand in 2010. Now, Humvee Export is building the C-Series in the US, with help from none other than Bob Lutz and VLF Automotive, to sell in China, according to Car & Driver. VLF, if you recall, is the company founded by Gilbert Villarreal, Bob Lutz, and Henrik Fisker. So far, VLF has launched the Destino, using the Fisker Karma body with a supercharged LS9 V8 engine from GM, as well as the Force 1, which is essentially a Viper-based, V10-powered supercar. Humvee Export President John Costin tells C&D that his company has contracted VLF to build its new C-Series in St. Clair, Michigan. Among Humvee Export's founders is Paul Chedid, who was once the distributor for the Hummer H1 in France. AM General, which builds the HMMWV for US and other militaries, sells C-Series kits (customers need to supply their own powertrain). VLF buys kits and finishes the build, and Humvee Export works with importers around the world to sell finished versions of the C-Series, complete with powertrain, with China being the latest market. The US is out of luck, though, as it can't be certified as a replica of a 25-year-old vehicle, thus exempting it from EPA and crash test certification under the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act. Related Video:

GeigerCars Hummer H2 Bomber is ready for winter...now that it's spring

GeigerCars Hummer H2 Bomber - Click above for high-res image gallery
GiegerCars has a love affair with American cars, and a particularly strange affection for Hummers. The German tuner has created all sorts of strange variants like a Christmas-themed H2, a 700-horsepower H2 built for a Texas sheriff or any number of racing-liveried Hummers like the "Gulf Wing" or this Martini Racing inspired H3.
GiegerCars' latest creation is the Hummer H2 Bomber. The most notable modification is the addition of four Mattracks 88M1-A1 rubber tracks that replace the twenty inch wheels. The rest of the vehicle features a military design theme as well as a roof box with lighting and a silver matte paint finish. Now all we need is a race on a snow-covered drag strip between this and Ken Block's Subaru TRAX STI. Follow the jump for the press release from GeigerCars.