GM Agrees to Sell Transmission Plant in France

General Motors Co. says it has reached a deal to sell its automatic transmission plant in Strasbourg, France, to Belgium-based Punch Metals International NV.

Terms were not disclosed. But Punch has agreed to retain the factory's current 1,000-member workforce.

GM has been trying to sell the complex, which makes 6-speed automatic gearboxes for BMW and GM, for four years. Most of the 280,000 transmissions produced there last year were for vehicles assembled outside Europe.

GM says it will continue to buy transmissions made at the facility through 2014.