UPDATE: GM Europe's Forster: Opel To Present Concept Monday
28 February 2009 - 2:56AM
Dow Jones News
General Motors Corp.'s (GM) European division Friday said it
will present a plan Monday on how to save the company, saying it
could become profitable again in 2011.
GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster told reporters at the
Opel brand's headquarters in Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt that Opel
needs EUR3.3 billion in capital, confirming statements made by a
supervisory board member in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires
last week.
The head of Opel's works council, Klaus Franz, said Opel may
change its corporate structure, but aims to remain part of the GM
network in Europe. It may sell plants to other manufacturers
though, Forster said.
He also said that Opel wants to repay aid by 2014-2015. The
outcome of the board meeting has been eagerly awaited as German
politicians in recent days increased the pressure on GM Europe's
management to come up with a convincing concept for the division's
future business as the U.S. auto giant is seeking state aid at home
and abroad in order to survive the current industry gloom.
The concept is set to be a cornerstone of consultations over the
weekend between the German economy minister Karl-Theodor zu
Guttenberg and the governors of German states with Opel plants over
possible ways to avoid a collapse of the German brand.
German politicians are under pressure from labor unions to bail
out Opel, GM's largest European brand by far, to help save the
company's 25,000 jobs -- a number that more than doubles when
including parts suppliers and other Opel-linked companies.
But German policy makers so far have been divided over the state
taking a stake in the car maker, with Chancellor Angela Merkel
saying that possible liquidity guarantees would be the right tool
to help companies like Opel.
Company Web site: www.gm.com
-By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512;
christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com