Word: magnas
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With the new General Motors Corp. expressing second thoughts about selling Opel to Canadian partsmaker Magna International Inc. - or anyone else, for that matter - a flip side to GM's indecision has emerged. Why would Magna want Opel when acquisition of the bankrupt European carmaker could jeopardize billions of dollars in business with existing customers - and possibly lead to its ruin...
...talks with Opel owners General Motors back on track, Merkel is reportedly ready to abandon her previous plan to force GM to sell a controlling stake in its European business to a consortium of Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International and Russia's Sberbank. According to the German tabloid Bild, the German government has told GM's chief negotiator, John Smith, that Berlin will consider GM's preferred investor, the Belgian industrial group RHJI, as long as it teams up with a partner from the automotive industry. (See TIME's photo-essay "GM's Eight Great Hopes...
...With Germans set to vote in parliamentary elections on Sept. 27, Merkel seems eager to create an exit strategy on Opel in case negotiations blow up on her. "The situation is that we have decided with a clear preference to advocate the Magna plan," Merkel told German television channel N-24 on Aug. 26. "There is a good possibility that we will come together...
...German government has been negotiating with GM over Opel since March. The U.S. automaker wants Germany to provide state guarantees for Opel of up to $6.4 billion. In return, the Germans wanted GM to agree to sell a 55% stake in Opel to the Magna-Sberbank consortium. At first GM seemed to be playing ball. It spun off Opel into a trust to protect the Rüsselsheim-based manufacturer from GM's Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. (Read "Ron Bloom Monitors GM - and Eyes the Exit...
...still sees GM as a global manufacturer and is determined to retake the No. 1 spot from rival Toyota. To do so, GM needs a European manufacturing base. At the very least, GM wants to avoid creating a new competitor by providing the dowry for a tie-up among Magna, Sberbank and Opel. So on Aug. 21, the GM board rejected Merkel's plan and sent point man Smith back to Berlin. (Read "Busting Out: German Pol Plays the Cleavage Card...