Three bidders left in Hummer auction: sources

Hummer trucks made by General Motors are seen on a dealer's lot in Denver February 26, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three bidders remain for General Motors Corp's (GM.N) Hummer brand, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, adding that current offers range from $100 million to $200 million in cash, in addition to other commitments.

None of the bidders are automakers. One bidder is from the United States and the other two are from overseas, the sources said, adding that the bidders include private equity and wealthy individuals

The sources declined to be identified because the details of the auction are not public.

Under the terms being discussed for the Hummer sale, a buyer would take over GM's liabilities for its 125 U.S. Hummer dealers and commit to further investments in areas such as engineering, marketing and sales, the sources said.

GM's plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, which makes the Hummer H3, will not be part of the deal, the sources said. Instead, GM will continue making the H3 there and will supply the vehicles to the new owner.

GM has recently hired an engineering firm to prepare an investment plan for future Hummer models to submit to the remaining bidders for their consideration in shaping final proposals, the sources said.

GM declined to comment on the specifics of the process.

"We have received several strong bids for the brand and those are in the final stages of review," GM spokesman Nick Richards said on Wednesday. "We are cautiously optimistic that we will report a favorable outcome to sell the brand in a very short time period."

The terms of the deals being discussed also would keep GM as a manufacturer of the vehicles at a time when it is under pressure to simplify its vehicle line-up and streamline its engineering efforts.

GM, which has lost about $82 billion since 2005, has received $13.4 billion in federal loans and is seeking more than $16 billion in additional government aid.

GM had promised to have a decision by the end of March on whether it would sell or fold Hummer. But it missed that deadline, along with other key targets set by the White House-appointed autos task force.

The task force has given GM 60 days to come up with a restructuring plan that cuts costs and debt levels more deeply than the automaker had planned.

By that point, officials have promised a decision on whether to support GM's turnaround as a much smaller auto company or whether to put it through a bankruptcy process intended to shed debt and laggard assets.

It was not immediately clear how a GM bankruptcy would affect the interest of the remaining bidders for Hummer or whether it would delay the closing of any deal.

(Reporting by Jui Chakravorty; Editing by Bernard Orr and Carol Bishopric)