GM, not Germany, should pay to fix Opel, minister says

Automotive News | November 12, 2009 – 12:01 am EST

BERLIN (Reuters) — German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle gave General Motors Co. little hope Wednesday that it will get state aid to restructure Opel.

"I expressed my expectation that General Motors should basically carry out the financing itself," Bruederle said after meeting with Nick Reilly, interim head of GM’s European business, and John Smith, another GM executive.

Bruederle said that GM executives told him the carmaker needs 3.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) for its plans to fix Opel, which has half of its 50,000 employees in Germany.

Bruederle said that the GM executives apologized over communication failures related to their decision not to go ahead with a planned sale of Opel to Canadian car parts supplier Magna International Inc. and its partner, Russian lender Sberbank.

GM executives said they would present their restructuring plan for Opel soon, he added.