Less than one day after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announcing the loss of 21,000 jobs and closure of 14 factories, General Motors (GM) has sold its Hummer division to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., of China.

GM announced on Tuesday it had signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the rugged off-road range but refused to reveal the name of the purchaser or the selling price.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., an industrial and machinery company based in Chengdu, western China, is a privately owned maker of special-use vehicles, structural components for highways and bridges, and construction machinery.

The company also manufactures plastics, resins and other industrial products, but Hummer will be its first step into the automotive business.

As part of the proposed transaction, Hummer will continue to contract vehicle manufacturing and business services from GM during a transitional period.

For example, GM’s Shreveport, La., assembly plant would continue to contract to assemble the H3 and H3T through at least 2010, GM said.

GM said that the deal is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of this year and will protect more than 3,000 jobs in manufacturing and engineering, and at dealerships “around the country.”

Hummer is famous for making very large sport-utility vehicles with the military version, the Humvee, in wide use as a general purpose transportation and patrolling vehicle by US armed forces.

In court documents filed on Monday, GM said it expected Hummer to fetch more than $US500 million, despite sales in 2008 slumping 51 percent seeing only 27,485 Hummers sold in the US.