German Fin Min: Government Will Have To Lead Talks With GM
18 February 2009 - 11:11PM
Dow Jones News
The German government will have to lead talks with General
Motors Corp. (GM) because the company's German unit Adam Opel GmbH
has some tens of thousands of staff in Germany, German Finance
Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Wednesday.
Still, he told reporters that he is skeptical over acquiring a
stake in Opel.
The comments come as General Motors said Tuesday it is counting
on $6 billion in financial support from foreign governments and
could potentially need billions more from the U.S. government in
coming years to cover pension obligations, even if it gets the
additional aid it requested Tuesday. It is looking to secure the
aid by March 31.
It also said it would cut 47,000 jobs globally and from these,
26,000 job cuts would take place outside Europe.
Opel has some 25,000 employees in Germany.
Web site: www.bundesregierung.de; www.opel.com
-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 (0)30 2888 4126;
andrea.thomas@dowjones.com