General Motors is now waiting to see if a Belgian company will appeal against a New York bankruptcy tribunal’s rejection of its offer for the automatic transmission plant in Strasbourg.
Punch – a Belgian group involved in the auto sector among others – has made an offer of US$3m for the French site – and now has a fortnight to decide if it will lodge an appeal.
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The offer is in stark contrast to GM’s purchase proposal of a symbolic EUR1 (US$1.29) to assume control of the factory from Motors Liquidation Company.
“We do not know if there will be an appeal or not,” a GM Strasbourg spokesman in France told just-auto. “Punch has 15 days to make an appeal on the first judgement.
“The bankruptcy court rejected the request of Punch because it accepted the GM proposition. The first decision was in our favour so we hope this will be confirmed.”
GM also maintains its offer is the preferred one that its unions could accept – it has had protracted negotiations with worker representatives for most of this summer concerning the proposed takeover.
Three of the four labour organisations at the site in eastern France have agreed to new working practices at the transmissions factory, although the Confederation Generale du Travail has inked a separate deal that will not see it oppose the new conditions involving a 10% reduction in costs.
“The guarantees are less clear from Punch compared [to] General Motors,” said the GM spokesman. “The unions at Strasbourg said they would prefer the purchase to be from GM.”
Previous indications have been there will be no redundancies among the 1,150 employees.
