RHJ International, the Belgian group vying to buy GM’s European brands, says it has no plans to close Vauxhall’s two manufacturing plants in Britain and tells the Sunday Times newspaper that it is committed to the UK operations.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
RHJ, an industrial holding group with close ties to Ripplewood, the American private-equity group, is one of two bidders for GM Europe, owner of Vauxhall and Germany’s Opel. It had been feared a new owner would close the UK plants and ditch the Vauxhall to control costs.
RHJ chief executive officer Leonhard Fischer told the Sunday Times that if successful, his group would lay off 10,000 of GM Europe’s 58,000 staff. The cuts would be spread across its operations, and he said there was no intention of shutting the UK factories. “We are very strong supporters of both these plants and of the Vauxhall brand. We want to keep a strong industrial and brand footprint in the UK.”
Fischer also rejected suggestions that RHJ would sell GM Europe back to GM of America in a few years’ time. “We have no intention to do that,” he said. “Our contract with GM doesn’t have any kind of call option for them. We see ourselves as long-term investors.”
RHJ has offered to pay EUR275m (US$455m) for GM Europe, and is asking the German government for up to EUR3.8bn (US$6.3bn) in loans. Some contribution could also come from the British government.
Vauxhall employs 5,000 people in the UK, with manufacturing plants at Ellesmere Port and a joint-venture van factory in Luton.
RHJ is in a bidding war with Canadian supplier Magna International to buy a majority stake in Opel from parent General Motors. GM is selling the loss-making carmaker to win financial aid from the government in Germany, where Opel has most of its factories.
RHJ’s bid for Opel includes a plan to close the carmaker’s plant in Antwerp, Belgium, by March 2010 and mothball Germany’s Eisenach factory for next two years
Magna’s offer says Luton and Belgium’s Antwerp plants could be shuttered.
Britain has long been the largest market for Opel/Vauxhall but it has been overtaken this year by Germany where government scrappage incentives have boosted car sales since their introduction in February.
