GM to Compensate for Opel? - Analyst Blog

The Russian bank, Sberbank, has asked for voluntary compensation from General Motors (GM) for the scrapped deal to sell 55% of the latter’s stake in Opel to the former. The bank has threatened to sue the automaker otherwise. 

Last month, GM halted its plan to sell a 55% stake in Opel to Magna (MGA), backed by Russia’s Sberbank, and decided to continue running the unit on its own. 

GM had been in a dilemma while choosing Magna as the preferred bidder for Opel. The German Government preferred Magna, which had promised not to close any of the four Opel plants in the state. The deal was supported by a €1.5 billion ($2.15 billion) Government-backed bridge loan. 

However, with Magna, GM was afraid of losing Opel's technology to the Russian car industry. If Magna had won the deal, GM may have lost Russia’s increasingly important market for its models such as Chevrolet. Secondly, it would have lost the Opel engineers, who are integral to GM's overall strategy. 

Magna and Sberbank were planning to manufacture Opel cars in Russia with the biggest automaker in the nation – Gaz Group – jointly owned by the tycoon Oleg Deripaska and Avtovaz (partly owned by France’s Renault). 

A 13-member Opel/Vauxhall Trust Board was formed before GM’s bankruptcy in June to decide the fate of the unit. The German Government held 65% of the unit and GM held 35%. The German Government's holding has now returned to GM as the automaker repaid €1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) in a German Government bridge loan, granted earlier this year to keep Opel afloat.
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