Troubled sale

General Motors' top negotiator on Opel, John Smith, wrote in a blog on Friday that the US carmaker would consider changes to the planned sale of Opel to Magna/Sberbank at a board meeting scheduled for November 3.

"Given the significance of the Opel transaction, GM's board will soon meet in its regularly monthly meeting to consider ... [the] changes to the Magna/Sberbank proposal that have occurred since its last review on September 9," Smith wrote.

Smith also said that GM directors would discuss a letter from German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, which said that German aid for the deal was not restricted to Magna but available to all bidders.

The German news group Spiegel Online reported on Friday that key figures of the GM board were now opposed to the sale and even considering holding on to Opel while using the 4.5 billion euros ($6.7 billion dollars) in promised German aid to restructure it.

Berlin says deal still on track

However, Berlin officials insisted they had no information that GM had changed its course on selling the majority stake to the Canadian-Russian consortium consisting of Magna and Sberbank.

Under the preliminary deal signed last month, Austrian-Canadian auto parts maker Magna and Russian state-owned bank Sberbank would take a 55 percent share in Opel. Ten percent of the company's shares would be held by the employees while rest would remain with General Motors.

Berlin has promised up to 4.5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in loans and credit guarantees to help keep Opel afloat, but the EU announced it will examine the deal over whether it will unfairly protect jobs in Germany at the expense of those in other European countries.

The company employs around 45,000 staff in Europe, with more than 25,000 in Germany. The other Opel plants are in Belgium, Poland, Spain, and Austria. Its sister company Vauxhall is in Britain. Magna has previously said it may slash up to 11,000 jobs in Europe as part of its restructuring plan.


nk/dpa/AFP
Editor: Andreas Illmer