Economy Minister: GM should pay to restructure Opel, not Germany

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson was hanging out in Germany earlier this week in an effort to repair relations after the Detroit automaker announced last week that it will keep Opel and restructure it, putting a surprising end to plans to sell the brand to Magna International.

Henderson has previously said that GM could seek assistance from the European government to help pay for the estimated $4 to $5 billion restructuring costs involved in getting Opel to be competitive again. Well, things aren’t looking so good for Henderson or GM.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said that GM, not Germany, should pay to fix Opel.

“I expressed my expectation that General Motors should basically carry out the financing itself,” Bruederle said.

Bruederle also said that executives from GM apologized over the lack of communication when it decided not go ahead with the sale of Opel and said that the Detroit company will present their restructuring plan for Opel soon.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Reuters