U.S. automaker GM names Suryadevara CFO to succeed Stevens

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By Ankit Ajmera

(Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Wednesday Dhivya Suryadevara, currently vice president of corporate finance, will succeed Chuck Stevens on Sept. 1 as chief financial officer of the No. 1 U.S. automaker.

Suryadevara, 39, has played an integral role in some significant deals GM has made as it has restructured operations over the past several years, including the divestiture of the company's European arm Opel and the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise. She played a role in securing earlier this month a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp, GM said in a statement.

During her 13 years with the Detroit-based company, Suryadevara helped achieve ratings upgrades from all three credit ratings agencies, completed $2 billion in notes issuance to fund discretionary pension contributions and upsized and renewed GM's $14.5 billion revolving credit facility, the company said.

She was named vice president, corporate finance, in July 2017, a job that included overseeing investor relations.

Stevens will remain with the company as an adviser until his retirement in March, the company said. Stevens has worked at GM for 40 years and became CFO in January 2014. (http://bit.ly/2LKwgDK)

"We expect a smooth transition and status quo on the strategy," RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak wrote in a note on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Joseph White and Will Dunham)