GM Fails to Announce Winning Bidder for Opel

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GM’s board declined to name a winning bidder for the Open brand last Friday as was expected. Instead the automaker decided to ask the German government more information about state financing for the buyers.

The German government has been pressuring GM to announce the sale of Opel to Magna and its Russian partners, since it would mean that more jobs would stay in Germany. Although it seems that GM is preferring a sale to Brussels-based financial investor RHJ International. So rather than announce the sale on Friday, GM’s board wanted to find out how much money RHJ would get from the government if they were chosen. It’s also being reported that the reason that GM is keen on selling Opel to RHJ is because it would include a buy-back option.

Either way the German government is not happy about the delay and Opel’s labor leader Klaus Franz has threatened “spectacular measures” if a decision is not made this week.

Full Story: Reuters