Troubled German carmaker Opel is in effect to become independent from its parent company General Motors (GM) after 80 years, under restructuring plans announced by its supervisory board.
The move will also see Vauxhall, which represents GM in the UK, rolled into the newly restructured company and spun off from its US parent. GM employs about 5,000 people in the UK.
Hans Dechant, the head of Adam Opel GmbH, said that the carmaker would “largely detach” itself from GM and reorganize as a joint-stock company to lure investors and state backing to save it from insolvency.
Carl-Peter Forster, head of the GM Europe division, said Opel needed an injection of 3.3 billion euros (US$4.2 billion) from governments across Europe to make the plan work. Speaking at a press conference at Opel’s headquarters in Russelsheim, in Frankfurt, Forster said GM would give up a stake of between 25 percent and 30 percent.
Forster said that Opel would become “significantly more independent” as a self-standing European company, but would retain close links with GM.
Opel said it wanted to retain access to new technologies and to benefit from a relationship with a large company. Certain legal and business links would remain.
The future of all 10 General Motors plants in Europe are all under review.
At least two plants are likely to be closed soon because of overcapacity and to cut losses.
The announcement to restructure General Motors European operations came after protests by thousands of workers in several cities this week who called for Opel to split from GM, in an effort to save it from insolvency and protect their jobs. Opel employs 26,000 in Germany alone.
Detroit-based GM has already received US$13.4 billion in state aid and is looking for a further US$16.6 billion. It has announced it lost US$30.9 billion last year, including US$2.8 billion at its European units.
Opel said it was hoping the German state would guarantee 3.3 billion euros in loans necessary for the restructuring plan, making it the first carmaker in Europe to ask for government support. But the government has repeatedly struck a note of caution, calling on Opel to first come up with a workable restructuring package.
Forster said the restructuring plans would be presented to the government on Monday as well as four states in which Opel has plants. Experts warned of complications likely to arise around the issue of patents and rights. Forster said “considerable savings” of 1 billion euros needed to be made, and cuts in wages and voluntary redundancies were to be expected.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last