GM selling Opel to PSA?

[Skydrol]

GM does not want anymore: Opel before selling to Peugeot
The German traditional brand Opel is to be sold to the French PSA group. GM has been unhappy with Opel for a long time.Employee representatives were caught cold by the planned transaction.

https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachri...l-nicht-mehr-opel-vor-dem-verkauf-an-peugeot/


Apparently, something is about to happen.

 

[SavVYute]

If that goes through that's the end of the Commodore here.
I can only imagine the panic that might be happening in Holden headquarters right now.
Head office in the US you wouldn't put in charge of a chook raffle. Don't their departments consult with each other?

 

[Skydrol]

Interesting... Opel designed numerous platforms for mainstream GM products. For example, the Epsilon Platform that still in used today (global platform). I wonder why GM wants to ditch Opel? Perhaps is something else...

Found this on Deutsche Wella.
http://m.dw.com/en/peugeot-citroen-in-talks-to-buy-gms-opel-brand/a-37543827


"Peugeot Citroen in talks to buy GM's Opel brand

The French automaker has said that it is in talks to "expand existing projects" with the German car company. Rumors have been circulating for months that GM would try to launch another major bid to offload the brand.

A spokesman said on Tuesday that French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen had plans to buy the Opel car brand from General Motors (GM). The news follows years of GM trying to offload the beleaguered German manufacturer.

"We are in discussions with Opel to expand upon our existing projects," PSA representative Bertrand Blaise confirmed to Reuters news agency. PSA Peugeot Citroen and Opel had already entered an alliance in 2012, with each becoming minority stakeholders in each other's companies - partially with an eye to sharing design strategy.

GM also said there were talks between the two carmakers, adding that "there can be no assurance that an agreement will be reached."

About two thirds of Opel’s 38,000 employees are based in Germany, where powerful labour unions make large-scale redundancies politically difficult. Little wonder that German politicians are are already complaining about the deal.

Economics Minister Brigitte Zypries said on Tuesday it was "unacceptable" that GM and PSA had not informed the Opel works council, the union IG Metall and the regional and federal government of their plans.

Elusive Opel profit

Detroit-based GM is weary of having to report losses year after year in Europe, where it last made a full-year profit in 1999 on a pre-tax basis. An outright sale would eliminate the losses. But GM relies on Opel for design work and uses Opel models as the basis for GM models in other markets.

Opel has struggled in large part because of GM's restrictions on it selling cars outside Europe. Last week, GM announced that Opel had suffered a loss of some $257 million (239 million euros) in 2016, meaning that the German carmaker failed for the 17th consecutive year to make a profit.

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra has underlined the company's commitment to Opel several times in recent years. But she expressed dissatisfaction with the unexpected loss last year. "We aren't satisfied with these results and the team is focused on mitigating the effect through further cost efficiencies," Barra said after the earnings update. And GM's Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said the company expected only a "relatively flat performance" in Europe this year.

German auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer said it was, therefore, only logical that GM was "exploring all options possible" to shed the loss-making entity.

"Whether it makes sense for Peugeot to buy Opel is a different issue. Peugeot and Opel overlap with their product ranges and both are based in Europe," he told DW.

GM first tried to sell Opel to the Canadian-Russian consortium Magna in 2009, but the European Commission forced the auto giant to cancel the sale on legal grounds in October of that year.

Brighter future?

Combining PSA Group with Opel and its British brand Vauxhall would create the second-largest carmaker by market share in Europe, with 16.6 percent of sales according to 2016 figures. The combination would be second only to Volkswagen, with 23.9 percent, and would vault ahead of the Renault-Nissan alliance, which had 13.9 percent.

Being bigger can in theory bring per-vehicle cost advantages by spreading fixed costs such as investment in plants and equipment over a larger number of vehicles.

Efraim Levy, an analyst at CFRA Research, said "deeper integration or partnership" was better than an outright sale of Opel.

GM and PSA Group formed an alliance in 2012 in an attempt to make production more efficient. In late 2013, GM announced it was selling its stake, although the two companies continued working on joint vehicle projects. For instance, GM will make Citroen's forthcoming subcompact crossover vehicle beginning later this year at a plant in Zaragoza, Spain.

uhe/sri (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)"

 

[Skydrol]

"Opel takeover by Peugeot seems sealed

On Monday, Peugeot and General Motors want to announce the acquisition of Opel by the French.

Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume and Pamela Barbaglia of Reuters report:

The takeover of the traditionally rich Autobauers Opel by the French PSA Peugeot Citroen is clearly under the roof and compartment. Peugeot and the former Opel owner General Motors invited on Saturday to a joint press conference on Monday morning in Paris, but without more detailed about their content. The board of directors of the French car group PSA Peugeot Citroen had given the green light for the takeover on Friday evening, as two persons of the news agency Reuters said with the matter said. The agreement on "key points" of the transaction should be announced at the beginning of the week, said an insider.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology did not want to comment on the latest developments. "We have noted the news," she said.The Ministry, however, maintains close contact with all stakeholders. The German government had recently expressed its positive opinion on the project after PSA CEO Carlos Tavares had previously secured the maintenance of the Opel sites and jobs in Germany.

PSA and GM insiders have also agreed on the question as to whether Opel will be able to compete with GM vehicles under future PSA direction in individual markets, such as China. The solution to this problem was made easier by the fact that GM "significantly more" than the up to now offered about one to two billion dollars for Opel pensions to contribute, it was in the course of the discussions.

With the sale of Opel, General Motors plans to withdraw from its loss-making Europe business, and after eighty eight years will be able to link the Opel and the British sister Vauxhall. Together with the German traditional company, the French want to forge the second largest car maker in Europe after Volkswagen.

The French have a market share of 9.7 percent in Western Europe, where they sell around half their vehicles with 1.5 million cars. Opel comes with just under one million sold cars to 6.6 per cent. PSA has promised to maintain the Opel sites, so that the minds in politics and workforce in both countries for the time being soothed. However, the guarantees relate only to the commitments and agreements already expressed by General Motors. These are generally valid until 2020. What happens after this is unclear. Opel employs more than 38,000 people, of which more than 19,000 in Germany, especially in Rüsselsheim, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach. The PSA Group is significantly larger than Opel with 184,000 employees worldwide. PSA wants to save up to two billion euros by means of uniform technology and the merging of development and purchasing insiders.

OPEL SHOULD STAY AFTER

Peugeot wants to win Opel customers who do not buy a French car. The traditional brand with the Blitz is to remain as a logo as an independent company. In 2012 the French coach with the lion as a trademark already had an alliance with the GM daughter. However, this did not come about because Peugeot got into the crisis. The French company was then saved from the state by state aid. Since then, the French state has been involved in just under 14 percent and has a strong voice. Another nearly fourteen percent each are held by the Chinese car maker Dongfeng and the Peugeot family.

Peugeot CEO Carlos Tavares has brought the company back into the track with a radical restructuring and new models. The net profit doubled in 2016 to almost 1.7 billion euros. This resulted in higher prices and savings in purchasing, production and administration. However, sales declined by one percent to 54 billion euros.

Tavares sees in the successful rehabilitation of Peugeot a model for Opel. The 58-year-old has already made it clear that PSA does not want to regulate the Rüsselsheimers. Opel is to set up its own plan for its rehabilitation. The GM subsidiary missed its target last year to return to the profit zone for the first time since 1999. According to the decision of the British, the company called for monetary turmoil to withdraw from the EU.

With 184,000 employees worldwide, the PSA Group is much larger than Opel, which employs a good 38,000 people, of whom more than 19,000 in Germany. The French have a market share of 9.7 percent in Western Europe, where they sell around half their vehicles with 1.5 million cars. Opel comes with just under one million sold cars to 6.6 per cent. Main locations in Germany are Rüsselsheim, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach, the plant in Bochum was closed at the end of 2014.

*** For DW, courtesy articles or political court reports, DWN is not available: Our principles : Critical distance to all and clear words. Many of them do not like the Federal Government, the EU authorities, the parties' networks, lobbyists, the media under state supervision, and various agitators from Germany and abroad. These players impede us to the best of our ability and attack our business model."

https://deutsche-wirtschafts-nachri...l-uebernahme-durch-peugeot-scheint-besiegelt/