GM Motors Consolidate Operations In Africa

General Motors consolidates its African operations in order to take advantage of synergies across the continent thus positioning itself for expansion in a continent with long-term potential for vehicle sales growth.
With plans for 20 vehicle launches globally in 2013, the world's fastest-growing major automobile brand, General Motors Co., is out to take advantage of synergies across the African continent.

General Motors consolidates its African operations in order to take advantage of synergies across the continent thus positioning itself for expansion in a continent with long-term potential for vehicle sales growth.
With plans for 20 vehicle launches globally in 2013, the world's fastest-growing major automobile brand, General Motors Co., is out to take advantage of synergies across the African continent.
This it has decided to do by consolidating its operations in Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and merging them into a new unit to be known as GM Africa. The new arrangement, which is expected to position the company to expand in some  part of the world that has long-term potential for vehicle sales growth, takes immediate effect.
General Motors Co. and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world's largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM's brands include Chevrolet and Cadillac, as well as Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling.
And with the new development, Mario Spangenberg, currently president and managing director of GM North Africa, becomes the president and managing director of GM Africa. He will be at GM Africa's headquarters in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In the same vein, Tarek Atta will become managing director of GM Egypt and North Africa, reporting to Spangenberg.
In a statement, Edgar Lourençon, who has served as managing director of GM South Africa and president of GM Sub-Saharan Africa since November 2009, will assist in the transition and repatriate to South America later this year. He will report to Mark Barnes, GM International Operations vice president, Sales, Marketing and After sales, and chief country operations officer, Africa and Australia.
With operations in more than 50 markets in Africa and manufacturing operations in South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, GM sold 180,493 vehicles in Africa in 2012, an increase of 17.5 percent from the previous year.