“The chancellor has great empathy for the Opel employees who are put in a state of insecurity by rumours such as these,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
German media reported on Thursday that possible buyers could include Chinese carmakers or Germany’s Volkswagen, though Europe’s biggest carmaker is already juggling with several other deals.
Seibert said Merkel was irritated that GM had not reacted to quell rumors of a possible sale. GM, which had declined to comment on the reports, has not been in touch with the chancellor’s office or the economy ministry, he said.
GM dropped plans to spin off Opel in 2009 after months of negotiations to sell it, and embarked on a drastic restructuring to get the unit, which lost $1.6 billion last year, back on track.
In a fresh report on Friday, Welt Online cited company sources as saying China’s Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC), among bidders last time, had approached GM’s management.
Advisers close to BAIC said no formal offer had been made. BAIC President Wang Dazong, an engineer who spent 20 years working at GM, has said the company is aiming to expand outside its Chinese home market.
GM, which has a joint venture with China’s SAIC Motor Corp, declined to comment on Seibert’s statements and on the report that BAIC may be interested.
Opel also declined to comment.
People familiar with the matter said GM Chief Executive Daniel Akerson was frustrated with Opel’s inability to return to profitability, and was reviewing options for what to do with the company.
Akerson was one of only two GM board directors who voted against keeping Opel in late 2009, believing Europe was a market of national champion automakers — VW in Germany, Fiat in Italy and Renault in France — and pan-European luxury brands such as BMW and Daimler’s Mercedes, a person familiar with Akerson’s thinking said.
Opel is neither, and Akerson believed it would be a long battle to fix it.
Jeffries’ analyst Peter Nesvold said GM’s management had indicated in a conference earlier on Friday that Europe was key to developing global car platforms.
“This suggests to us that an outright sale would be difficult, but rather perhaps a partnership makes more sense.”
Opel Chief Executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke redoubled efforts to pour cold water on the rumor mill as he addressed employees at the company’s headquarters in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, on Friday, painting a rosy picture about the automaker’s prospects.
“Stracke told us very clearly that this is nothing but speculation and that there is nothing to it,” Osman Aslan, an Opel employee, said.
The CEO, appointed only three months ago, also talked up the company’s product pipeline and said Opel’s market share in Germany and Europe had risen for seven consecutive quarters.
He said first-quarter operating earnings had been “well rounded”.
