On Tuesday, March 7, 2006, GM sold 17.4 percent of Suzuki into the open market, as Suzuki concurrently bought back about the same number of shares. The move left GM with 3 percent of Suzuki.

GM raised about $2 billion in cash from the sale. Clarke predicted GM will book a pretax gain of between $550 million and $700 million.

GM, which lost $8.6 billion last year, is selling the shares to raise money. "It's a smart way to generate some cash that could fund other growth initiatives," Clarke says.

Clarke won't comment directly on whether GM might also sell all or part of its 12-percent stake in Isuzu Motors Ltd. "We've made no decision," he says.

"Isuzu is also a core alliance partner," he says. "As a matter of good business practice, we continually review our investments."
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Nissan launching Infiniti in Europe. Nissian not only needs to recruit exclusive dealers for Infiniti, but it also needs a V-6 diesel for Europe, where diesel models account for 50 percent of new-car sales.

Renault, which has a 44 percent stake in Nissan, is in charge of developing diesel engines for Infiniti, but a spokesman for the French brand says no date has been set for the engineÆs launch. Renault currently uses an Isuzu-sourced V-6 diesel in its large cars.