Now it is becoming more likely that Magna co-chief executive Siegfried Wolf will not 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 do not mean that 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 U.S. 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 risk 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 process. Magna is leading a Russian group comprising industrial partner GAZ, controlled by Oleg Deripaska, and state-owned 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 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.
Wolf postponed talks with Opel’s European dealers association by several weeks to gain time for negotiations with GM. Then Magna pushed back a key board meeting to July 14, the day before it was originally hoping to ink a deal.
“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 July 20, a source at Opel said.
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 that he believed that it would be easier to build a mutually acceptable clause into the deal that sufficiently protects the U.S. carmaker’s patents.
Beijing Automotive, or BAIC, may have lost its bid after the Chinese carmaker submitted an offer that met with a “very cool” reception in Berlin, a source involved in the talks said.
Labor leaders and local politicians have also opposed a BAIC deal.
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