German Econ Min Expects GM's Opel To Present Concept This Week
February 25 2009 - 10:30AM
Dow Jones News
German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said
Wednesday he expects carmaker Adam Opel GmbH, a unit of General
Motors Corp. (GM), to present a restructuring plan this week.
"We firmly believe we will get it this week," zu Guttenberg told
reporters. He added that the government would then evaluate it
before making its decision. He declined to comment how possible aid
would look like.
Armin Schild, a supervisory board member at Opel, told Dow Jones
Newswires Friday that the company needs at least EUR3.3 billion in
capital to survive and become less dependent on GM.
Help for Opel might come in the form of a credit or liquidity
guarantees while some politicians also suggested taking a stake in
the carmaker.
The collapse of struggling Opel could cost German taxpayers up
to EUR3 billion and it would be better to rescue it instead, German
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Sunday.
The government recently set up a EUR100 billion fund to provide
liquidity guarantees and loans to help companies struggling with
tight credit conditions. But this doesn't include plans for the
government to take direct stakes in such companies.
-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-30-288-8410;
andrea.thomas@dowjones.com
(Christoph Rauwald contributed to this report.)