"I think it is possible," Whitacre told reporters in a roundtable discussion at the automaker's board room in its Detroit headquarters when asked if he thought the deal could be completed on Saab by GM's month-end deadline.
Whitacre repeated that barring a deal, GM would close Saab. GM had set an end-of-December deadline to find a buyer for the unit after a deal to sell the brand to sports car maker Koenigsegg collapsed in November.
In his first full question-and-answer session with reporters since becoming acting CEO on December 1, Whitacre also said that GM's deal to sell a majority stake in its China joint venture to partner SAIC was decided before he became CEO.
"It was sort of done before I got here," he said, adding that he had met with SAIC's chief executive in Detroit last week and received assurances at that meeting that the nature of the partnership would not change.
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