subject: "capitalsys" - German Officials Meet Top Gm Negotiators. [print this page] Today German Officials met with General Motors executives to discuss the Opel takeover.
Sources from Germany told CapitalSys that GMs top negotiator is meeting with German officials to take about why the takeover is taking so long. Germany is keen to know why no deal has been completed as all the bids are in.
CapitalSys has been monitoring the situation closely and so far GM has failed to announce a winner of the companies that have bid for Opel. As reported by CapitalSys, GM execs have failed to endorse a winner of the two bidders Magna and RHJ. Its thought that the GM execs are holding out for a cash injection from the German government.
Currently RHJ is the best offer but they will not guarantee German jobs, something the Germans are sensitive to. Magna is thought to be weakest offer but they will keep most of the jobs. Therefore if the German government give a cash injection to the Magna bid then the GM execs can choose them knowing many jobs are safe.
GM execs are also aware that the German elections are coming up so the government may be arm twisted into give the cash injection otherwise their election campaign may be destroyed.
Sources told CapitalSys that the German government have put pressure on GM to accept Magna, but without any cash aid then the GM executives are unlikely to do a deal. But GM do not want to see redundancies but it must get the best price for its shareholders.
Earlier CapitalSys sources told that GM may try to raise money and buy Opel themselves to try to solve the situation.
