GENERAL MOTORS is leaning towards picking Canada’s Magna International and its Russian partners – Germany’s favoured suitors – as preferred buyers for the Opel business in Europe, sources close to the matter said last night.
But the automotive group faced a stiff challenge from Brussels-based financial investor RHJ International as GM’s board weighed rival offers for Opel, which started making cars in 1899 and which GM bought in 1929.
“It’s going in the direction of Magna,” one source said.
The sale of Opel is being keenly watched as billions of euro in government aid is riding on the outcome as are the employment prospects of over 25,000 people in Germany and thousands more across a large swathe of Europe.
A Magna victory would be a coup for its founder and chairman, Frank Stronach, who left Europe a poor toolmaker half a century ago and built his company into one of the world’s biggest automotive suppliers. It would mark a setback for Leonhard Fischer, a suave former investment banker and turnaround specialist who runs RHJ.
Officials in Berlin say talks with GM executives have gone well in recent weeks and there is support for Magna’s bid within the board. But they also say RHJ also has supporters in Detroit and describe the decision as open. – (Reuters)
