Main focus of Thursday, November 5, 2009

GM wants to restructure Opel

In a surprise move the US carmaker General Motors announced yesterday that it will not sell its subsidiary Opel to Magna as planned, and that it will cut 10,000 jobs across Europe. The European press reacts to the news with scepticism and a glimmer of hope.

Les Echos - France

The business paper Les Echos is highly criticial of GM's announcement that it will restructure Opel itself: "In the business world there are small injustices and major scandals. General Motors' decision to hold on to Opel belongs firmly in the second category. Although it had promised to unburden itself of Opel, the former number one of the car industry can afford to maintain this subsidiary which is posting heavy losses thanks to dozens of billions of dollars from the US state and taxpayers. Detroit is delighted, but the rest of the car world is incensed. ... For the European car industry it signals a cruel end to this industrial soap opera. The overcapacities that dog all manufacturers will no doubt hardly be reduced by the move. And Opel's market share which was up for grabs is now no longer available." (05/11/2009)

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Il Sole 24 Ore - Italy

The business daily Il Sole 24 Ore believes that not only economic reasons were behind General Motors' change of tack regarding the sale of Opel: "GM's decision is embarrassing for [German chancellor Angela] Merkel, who in the past few months has resolutely pushed for Opel to be sold to Magna. … At least two other reasons prompted General Motor's unexpected decision: the - still tentative - economic recovery has reminded managers that the sale of Opel would limit GM's international radius of action. … Moreover economic nationalism could have played a role: the public shareholders [of GM] may not have liked the idea of selling technology and know-how to the Russian competition [Russia's Sberbank was to have participated in the planned consortium for buying Opel]." (05/11/2009)

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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany

"The changes at Opel are good news for German taxpayers," writes the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the planned sale of the car manufacturer to the Austro-Canadian Magna company: "Even if General Motors will still be dependent on state help from Berlin, its new plan will cost at least one and a half to two billion euros less than anticipated. ... One of the losers of the new situation will be some employees at locations in Germany. For the majority however a secure job in a smaller but financially healthy company is certainly better than an insecure future in a state-subsidised business." (05/11/2009)

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De Tijd - Belgium

The behaviour of the US company General Motors (GM) has led to deep-seated resentment on the part of German employees, writes the business daily De Tijd, commenting that there is, however, fresh hope for the Opel plant in the Belgian city of Antwerp: "The result of this antipathy is that Berlin has provisionally refused state aid for restructuring Opel. The question arises of how long Berlin can keep up this attitude if GM starts playing off the various European governments vying to maintain their local plants with state aid against each other. For Antwerp this latest development in the Opel saga could prove beneficial. If the German federal and state governments stick to their threat ... the Opel plant in Antwerp could find itself with an important trump in its hand. Because the Flemish government still has 500 million euros in loans and leasing constructions up its sleeve." (05/11/2009)

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