Vested interests drag out Magna's Opel takeover

ERJ staff report (AN)

Frankfurt, Germany (Reuters) -- Reaching a deal to acquire General Motors' European unit Opel in just a few weeks was never going to be easy for Canada's Magna International Inc.

Now it's becoming more likely that Austrian co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf won't meet his timetable to draft a contract by July 15, because the need to get consent from a myriad of interests is slowing the entire process.

Yet the delays don't mean the Magna deal is in doubt, if only because rival Chinese interest raises even greater questions among the parties who will decide Opel's fate.

Any accord has to be approved by GM's biggest shareholder, the US Treasury, as well as German state and federal governments who are to provide billions of euros in loan guarantees.

"It was a mistake for Sigi Wolf to name the date July 15", given the risks that the timetable could slip, a source close to the talks said.

Berlin's Opel task force and a trust holding 65 percent of the former GM unit are involved in nearly every step of the way. Magna is leading a Russian group comprising industrial partner GAZ and state-owned lender Sberbank.

The 50,000 Opel workers are also at the table with an expected 10 percent stake in "NewCo," while European countries that host major Opel assembly and component plants are expected to contribute financial aid to keep these operations running.

In addition, managers, unions and state officials have to craft a deal that does not unfairly benefit one country in order not to draw the ire of Brussels competition authorities.

"We always have to see that no one is at a disadvantage, no one feels circumvented or says afterward they were not included -- so virtually everyone has to be involved in the decisions at the same pace," another source familiar with the talks said.

Ambitious schedule

Wolf postponed talks with Opel's European dealers association by several weeks to gain more time for negotiations with GM. Then Magna pushed back a key board meeting by a week to July 14, the day before it was originally hoping to ink a deal.

Now even Tuesday's meeting looks like it will fall by the wayside, raising questions about how long it might take for Wolf to work out a deal with GM and draft a business plan.

"Even when GM and Magna reach an agreement, the Task Force and the other independent parties would want time to examine it. I could imagine a signing maybe in the 30th calendar week," which starts on Monday, July 20, a source at Opel said.

Even that could be ambitious because a couple of issues are yet to be resolved.

The Kremlin wants Russia's obsolete car companies to gain access to GM's technology, while Magna is hoping to win distribution rights to GM's Chevrolet brand in Russia."This was a non-starter for GM from the beginning," a source at GM warned, adding he believed it would be easier to build a mutually acceptable clause into the deal that sufficiently protects the U.S. carmaker's patents.

Meanwhile, Beijing Automotive may have lost its bid to beat out heavily favored Magna in the race to buy Opel after the Chinese carmaker submitted an offer that met with a "very cool" reception in Berlin, said a source involved in the negotiations.

Labor leaders such as Opel's Klaus Franz and local politicians have also opposed a BAIC deal.

Along with doubts on whether BAIC's owner -- the city of Beijing -- can gain approval from the central government by the end of November when Opel needs an ownership changeover, GM would own an indirect minority stake in Opel China that could complicate its Chinese joint venture with SAIC in Shanghai.

"SAIC is a very important partner for GM," the person said, adding that financial investor RHJ International had as of Tuesday not submitted documents to Berlin proving its reported interest in Opel.

From Automotive News (A Crain publication)