A team from Magna International, the supplier and contract vehicle assembler currently negotiating to buy General Motors’ Opel and Vauxhall units, will arrive in the UK on Monday (15 June) to inspect Vauxhall’s operations and books to see if the unit is viable.
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Magna’s co-CEO Siegfried Wolf told reporters in Berlin that he was “very positive that we will find a solution that is good for Britain. There is a lot of potential in England and every job lost is one too much.” He added that Vauxhall needed to ensure that its products are “competitive.”
Earlier he had met UK government business secretary Peter Mandelson who told him that the British government was prepared to offer aid under a viable plan for Vauxhall, which employs 5,500 people, though there were “many technical details” to be resolved in coming weeks and any aid must be approved by the European Commission.
Opel’s four Germany plants were guaranteed to remain open after Chancellor Angela Merkel provided a EUR1.5 bn (US$2.1 bn) loan to ease the Magna takeover.
Magna, Canada’s largest parts maker, plans to fire as many as 11,100 workers as part of the Opel takeover and Klaus Franz, GM’s top labour leader in Europe, said on 3 June that it may be tough to save Vauxhall’s van factory in Luton.
Mandelson told reporters that European partners also “need to keep their minds open to alternatives” to Magna in case talks fail. Others waiting on the sidelines to pick up the pieces if that happens are said to include China’s state-owned Beijing Automotive Industry Holding while Fiat has still not been ruled out, according to media reports citing sources close to the talks.
Magna, together with Russian lender Sberbank, plans to invest at least EUR500 mn in GM’s European operations. It would own a 20% stake and the Moscow-based bank, Russia’s biggest lender, would take 35%. GM would retain 35% and Opel workers would get 10%.
Meanwhile, Fiat’s proposal for Opel, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Thursday.
“We are waiting for the situation to clarify itself,” he told reporters.
