GM Probably Won’t Sell Opel to Magna, Lauk of Merkel’s CDU Says

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. is unlikely to sell Opel to Magna International Inc. because the U.S. carmaker doesn’t want to hand over its intellectual property to Russia, the head of a pro-business group in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said.

GM may dismiss pending bids for Opel and decide to keep a majority stake in its Germany-based division to retain a bigger presence in Europe and Russia, where GM has been building plants and adding capacity, said Kurt Lauk, head of the Christian Democratic Union’s Economic Council and a former board member of DaimlerChrysler AG and Audi AG.

“I just can’t believe that GM’s new board will accept transferring important know-how to the Russians,” said Lauk, referring to Magna’s investment partner OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank. It would be “commercially wise” for GM to keep Opel on the basis of a “restructuring plan,” he said today by telephone.

GM’s 13-member board may take a decision on Opel’s future at a two-day meeting in Detroit starting tomorrow. Germany, which provided an emergency 1.5 billion-euro ($2.2 billion) loan to keep Opel solvent, backs Canadian car-parts maker Magna to buy the unit over a bid by Brussels-based investment firm RHJ International SA favored by GM.

Lauk said that Germany endorsed Magna as its preferred bidder “way too soon.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aJaArdkD7lnM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !

 

Ha ha, hee hee, ho ho. I didn't know they had those things.

 

It was worth a couple of billions for the US taxpayer..."No brainer", so to speak...