GM chief executive steps down

Fritz Henderson

The chief executive of the US car giant General Motors, Fritz Henderson is to step down the company has announced.

For the time being, GM's chairman of the board, Ed Whitacre Jr, who was named GM's chairman by the Obama Administration in June, will replace him until an outsider is found to take over the position.

Whitacre said Henderson had done a "remarkable job in leading the company through an unprecedented period of challenge and change," the BBC said.

Henderson is a GM veteran, who took over the reins in March after the US Government forced out his predecessor, Rick Wagoner, the British paper The Times said.

He helped to guide the company out of recession in July, but of late it has become clear that his control was slipping.

A series of leaks and growing speculation about boardroom splits suggested that he had failed to win the full confidence of a board of directors that included a number of government appointees.

Future

Whitacre added, "All involved agree that changes needed to be made."

He assured GM's employees, dealers, suppliers, union partners and customers that it would be business as usual, with an emphasis on "a return to profitability and repaying the American and Canadian tax payers as soon as possible."

The task facing Whitacre and Henderson's successor remains enormous as they will have to attempt to turn round GM, which has lost more than US$80 billion (GBP£50 billion) in the past four years and has received about US$50 billion in aid from the US Government.

The company is also facing a search for a new chief executive for Opel/Vauxhall.

The news of Henderson's departure came minutes after the end of a GM board meeting to discuss the fate of its Swedish car brand Saab.

GM said that due to the emergence of new potential buyers it would evaluate bids for carmaker Saab by the end of December.

But the firm added that if it did not find a "suitable arrangement" it would then "wind down" Saab.

A deal to buy Saab - which employs 4500 people - failed last week after Sweden's Koenigsegg Automotive dropped out of a possible takeover. This was the third failed attempt to sell Saab this year.

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