A GM failure could mean a world of hurt

Nearly three-fifths of the employees at General Motors Corp. work for a company that makes cars that are admired, popular and profitable.

They just don't work in the United States.

GM has a bigger presence outside the U.S. than in it, employs more people in other countries than here, and actually makes money selling cars everywhere from Sao Paulo to Shanghai. Its U.S. revenue has sunk 24% in the last three full years, but in the rest of the world, GM can boast a 28% increase.

Now, as lawmakers mull whether to provide billions of dollars in loans to keep the Detroit-based company from collapse, GM's global reach has become in many ways its most overlooked asset and a key to its ultimate survival.

"A major argument for keeping GM out of bankruptcy is the strength of its foreign footprint," said Kimberly Rodriguez, a partner at accounting and management consulting firm Grant Thornton, which works with auto companies.

Yet because of the deeply intertwined nature of GM's global operations, if the company goes down here, she said, "there will certainly be problems for the company worldwide."

Company officials declined to discuss what would happen in the event of a bankruptcy. GM's foreign units are separate corporate entities, which means they would probably be shielded from a U.S. filing and could continue to operate without concerns of a U.S. court seizing their assets, for example.

Still, if the automaker's U.S. operations fail, as GM says they will without an immediate cash infusion, it could set off a chain reaction that would not only put U.S. parts suppliers out of business, but could throw off production schedules overseas and freeze up GM's foreign plants.

That, in turn, could have a ripple effect on its overseas competitors.

"I am very concerned about GM because we share suppliers with [GM subsidiary] Opel," said Klaus Berning, head of sales and marketing for Porsche, which produces all of its vehicles in Europe.

GM says it has been the world's top-selling carmaker for the last 77 years, edging out rival Toyota Motor Corp. last year by a narrow margin. But where GM sells the bulk of its cars has changed dramatically.

Through the first nine months of this year, 4.3 million of the 6.7 million cars and trucks GM sold -- nearly two-thirds -- were purchased outside this country.

And of the company's 252,000 employees, 152,000 work abroad, building Chevys, Opels, Vauxhalls, Holdens and Buicks in 33 countries.