As a part of its plan to establish itself as a slimmer, yet more-competitive auto maker, the recession-hit General Motors (GM), which filed for bankruptcy on Monday, has announced the tentative sale of its all-SUV Hummer brand.

Though the company said on Tuesday that it had already entered into a memorandum of understanding for the proposed sale, it refrained from disclosing either the name of the buyer or the financial aspects of the supposed transaction. GM said that an unnamed investor would aggressively fund the future programs pertaining to Hummer products.

In an interview with CBS, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said that the buyer "is quite capable of closing," added that the sale would likely close by this year's third quarter. After the materialization of the deal, over 3,000 jobs would be secured in manufacturing and engineering divisions of the Hummer products, along with those at Hummer dealerships in the US.

Henderson said GM will be in touch with dealers to make sure they know the brand; and will persist with the production of Hummer H3 and H3T trucks and SUVs at some of its US plants till next year.

Until recently, the offers for its Hummer brand were being entertained by GM from quite a few parties - including a Chinese investor - with most bids falling in the below-$500 million range!