Sberbank and Magna may not finalise a deal to buy Opel as they have not yet agreed to new conditions of the deal outlined by General Motors, the Kommersant business daily reported on Monday.
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Sberbank could close a deal in September to buy an Opel stake if it agrees to new terms proposed by GM, Sberbank president and CEO German Gref said last week without specifying GM’s new conditions.
Sberbank and Magna signed a framework agreement to buy Opel from GM in late May, Prime-Tass noted. Under the agreement, Sberbank is expected to get a 35% stake in Opel, while Magna will receive 20%.
GM is seeking an excessive amount of investment in Opel, Russian auto industry sources told Kommersant.
The sources said GM has estimated that over EUR7bn should be invested in Opel in the next few years and the size of investments proposed by GM was considered “unfounded”.
This much money could be used to build a new car plant in Russia but only EUR600m-EUR700m would be needed to launch Opel production at the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ), the sources said. That plant is part of GAZ Group, which is also participating in the consortium of Magna and Sberbank to buy Opel.
Previously, Gref had talked about investments totalling only up to EUR500m, the paper said.
The paper, citing Hesse state premier Roland Koch, added that GM’s management also wanted to include in the deal a provision allowing the company to buy Opel back from Sberbank in the years following Opel’s financial recovery. But a source close to GAZ Group told the daily GM had agreed to drop this demand.
Sberbank and Magna have also been unable to agree with GM on the use of Opel technologies and design, Kommersant said. GM is worried that Russia is seeking to use Opel designs to help improve the country’s auto industry.
Sberbank and Magna plan to set final terms of their deal with GM no later than 15 July, sources told Kommersant.
Meanwhile, GM’s own new plant near St Petersburg is to shut from today until 31 August due to falling demand, the automaker said in a statement.
