Saab Automobile reiterates it is confident that parent General Motors Co. will find a buyer for the entire Swedish unit, refuting a Wall Street Journal report that GM has reached a tentative agreement to sell some Saab assets to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co.

The asset sale would reportedly include production equipment and intellectual property for older versions of the 9-3 and 9-5 sedan models, says the newspaper, which cites an unidentified source. Reports of an asset sale to BAIC first surfaced early this month. The Chinese automaker reportedly is not interested in buying Saab’s Swedish headquarters or Trollhattan assembly complex.

Victor Muller, CEO of Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV, tells Reuters his company is still in talks about buying the Swedish brand. News reports say Spyker is the likeliest winner in a bidding field that also includes New York City-based private equity firm Renco Group Inc.

The Beijing-based Economic Observer claims GM may sell Saab’s core assets, including platforms and rights to the brand, to its Chinese joint venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. Other news reports from China say Saab might become part of a three-way minivehicle joint venture run by GM, SAIC and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co.

When plans to sell Saab to Koenigsegg Group collapsed last month, GM said it would decide by the end of this month whether to sell or close the unit.

On Wednesday the United Auto Workers union’s Administration Caucus is expected to nominate Bob King, vice president of the Ford Dept., to succeed President Ron Gettelfinger, according to news reports.

Official balloting will take place at the union’s constitutional convention next June, but the caucus’ recommendation all but guarantees election. King, 63, would probably serve a single four-year term, because the union requires leaders to retire at the end of the term in which they turn 65.

King, an electrician with degrees in political science and law, will take charge of a union whose membership has fallen to 431,000 members from a peak of 1.5 million in 1979. But the union is assuming a new role as shareholder at Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. As a result of their bankruptcies this year, a UAW-run retiree healthcare trust now owns 55% of Chrysler and 17.5% of GM.

King has been considered Gettelfinger’s heir apparent. But his standing was hurt last month when the union’s Ford membership resoundingly rejected the last round of givebacks he negotiated, which would have put Ford on an even footing with Chrysler and GM.

The caucus also is expected to nominate Dennis Williams, a UAW regional director in Chicago who was King’s main challenger, to become secretary-treasurer. James Settles Jr., who heads the farm equipment unit, would reportedly succeed King at Ford. Joe Ashton, a regional director from western New York, would head the GM Dept. General Holiefield would remain in charge of the Chrysler unit.

Separately, Gettelfinger told the UAW’s own staff he will impose the terms of a concessionary contract they rejected last month. That agreement reportedly includes the loss of dental and vision benefits for future retirees and the choice of taking 10 days of unpaid furlough or giving up their 401(k) matching contribution next year. Bloomberg News says the cuts could save the union as much as $13,000 per employee in annual staffing costs.

Countries around the world should slash their emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases by an average of 50% of 1990 levels by 2020, a United Nations working group suggests.

The group’s draft document proposes that industrialized nations reduce emissions by 25%-45% from 1990 to 2020. The group proposes they cut emissions by 75%-95% by 2050 and that developing countries reduce emissions by 15%-30% below business-as-usual levels over the same period. The goals go far beyond the proposals put forward by most countries.

The U.N. draft is the first proposal out of the global climate change conference that began last week in Copenhagen and runs through Friday. The European Union said late last week it would provide $10.5 billion over the next three years to help poorer countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But it is unclear how the massive long-term costs of meeting such goals would be funded.

New York City-based hedge fund Patriarch Partners LLC confirms it has agreed to spend as much as $125 million to buy a controlling stake in Dura Automotive Systems Inc.

Dura says the capital infusion will allow it to mend its balance sheet, thus completing its 15-month restructuring effort. The companies expect to close the deal by year-end.

Automotive News first reported the sale late last week. Patriarch says it plans to merge Global Automotive Systems-its much smaller Royal Oak, Mich.-based metal forming and welding business-with Dura. Patriarch says the unit will help Dura’s structure and safety systems operations to expand.

The combined entity, which will operate under the Dura name, will have 10,600 employees and combined sales of $2 billion. The companies do not expect the merger to result in job cuts. AN says Dura CEO Tim Leuliette is expected to stay.

Toyota Motor Co. will begin selling its plug-in Prius hybrid sedan to U.S. consumers in late 2011, says Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada.

Speaking to reporters in Japan earlier today, he said the new lithium-ion powered plug-in will be “affordable,” without specifying a price. The vehicle can travel about 15 miles on a single charge before switching to gasoline-electric hybrid mode.

From this month through mid-2010, Toyota plans to sell 600 plug-in Priuses to government and business test fleets worldwide, including 150 cars in the U.S. The company previously said it wouldn’t begin retail sales until 2012. Uchiyamada also said Toyota plans to sell a short-range electric car in 2012, but he provided no details.

The U.S. Senate passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill yesterday, which includes a provision to allow rejected auto dealers to take their grievances to arbitration.

The House of Representatives passed the bill late last week, and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it.

The legislation will allow dealers whose franchises were canceled this year by Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. to appeal those decisions in binding third-party arbitration. Last spring Chrysler dropped 789 dealerships, and GM notified 1,100 dealers that their contracts would be canceled by next October.

The legislation gives dealers wider opportunities to appeal than those offered earlier this month by Chrysler and GM. The companies proposed that dealers appeal to an arbitration panel whose scope was limited to the original criteria used to reject the dealers. Under the Congressional version, arbitrators would consider the rejected dealer’s profitability over the past four years, conditions that could have cause poor sales and the economic interests of the dealer, the companies and the public.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says GMAC Financial Services Inc. is still on track to receive additional government financing, although it will probably be “a little lower” than the $5.6 billion previously discussed.

Geithner made his remarks during testimony in Congress late last week. GMAC, which has received at least $12.5 billion in government financing in the past 12 months, needs the additional capital to meet the minimum levels required by regulators. The company is the financing arm for Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co.

The Treasury Dept. already owns 35.4% of GMAC and is expected to take preferred stock in exchange for the upcoming loans.

Kenneth Feinberg, the Dept. of the Treasury’s pay czar for bailed-out companies, capped annual cash compensation for lower-ranking executives at General Motors, GMAC, Citigroup and AIG at $500,000.

Feinberg laid out compensation limits in October for the top 25 executives at those companies. The latest limits apply to those among the next 75 most highly compensated managers whose total compensation currently exceeds $500,000. Feinberg says he made exceptions for 12 “critically important” managers. All but one will be paid less than $1 million annually.

Feinberg says no more than 45% of compensation at the four companies can be paid in cash. At least half of compensation must be held for three years. At GM, Feinberg also froze payments to the supplemental retirement plans of those executives.

The new rules will affect only 2009 compensation that has not yet been paid, such as bonuses. But they are expected to serve as the basis for 2010 pay standards.

Feinberg says he will work with GM during its search for a new CEO to replace Fritz Henderson, who left early this month. He reiterates that he would consider easing compensation limits to help GM recruit top talent. He also says that if the company repays its $6.7 billion term loan to the government by next June as planned, the Treasury Dept. would have to decide whether to lift pay caps.

Executives at Chrysler Group and Chrysler Financial are not affected by the rules because no managers below the top 25 earned more than $500,000.

Munich-based truckmaker MAN SE has named interim CEO Georg Pachta-Reyhofen to hold that job permanently, replacing Hakan Samuelsson, who quit on Nov. 23.

Pachta-Reyhofen also was put in charge of the company’s main commercial vehicle unit. He succeeds Anton Weinmann, who stepped down on Nov. 30. Klaus Stahlmann was tapped to fill Pachta-Reyhofen’s former job heading the diesel engine unit. Frank Lutz was appointed CFO, succeeding Karlheinz Hornung, who resigned on Nov. 27.

Last week MAN’s Turbo AG and commercial vehicle units agreed to pay $220 million in fines to settle charges that they bribed customers between 2002 and 2009. The company, which did not publicly admit any wrongdoing, says prosecutors continue to investigate unidentified individual MAN managers.

None of the three executives who resigned was implicated in the bribery probe. Observers suspect Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech, whose company owns 30% of MAN, is using the scandal as a way to purge executives who stand in the way of his goal of merging MAN with Scania AB and VW’s commercial truck business. VW also holds a controlling stake in Scania.

Tom LaSorda, former CEO of Chrysler Group LLC, and Steven Landry, the company’s former sales chief, have joined the board of ALTe LLC, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based maker of range-extended electric vehicle powertrain systems.

ALTe says LaSorda will serve as the board’s lead director and investor, although it did not offer details about the latter role. Landry will assist the board in dealer issues and business development. ALTe retrofits conventionally powered vehicles.

LaSorda left Chrysler after the company filed for bankruptcy in late April. He later became an advisor to Penske Automotive Group in its failed bid to buy General Motors Co.’s Saturn brand. Landry left Chrysler in June when the company emerged from Chapter 11.