Germany upped the pressure on US car giant General Motors to sell its European unit Opel to Berlin's preferred bidder, setting the stage for a potential transatlantic showdown.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government wants GM, which emerged from bankruptcy last month and is now majority owned by the US government, to choose an offer from Canadian parts maker Magna backed by a state-owned Russian bank.
But GM's board is widely believed to prefer an offer from Brussels-based investment group RHJ International as the Detroit giant might be able to buy it back from RHJ in better times.
German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said yesterday that he expected GM's board to make a 'decision in principle' on Opel late today or tomorrow.
In order to speed the process up, the head of the German government's 'Opel Task Force' has reportedly written to GM negotiator John Smith offering a €4.5 billion loan.
Previously, the plan was for Germany to stump up the loan together with other European countries where Opel has factories, but the Task Force's Jochen Homann said that Berlin has decided to go it alone for now.
Germany is willing to take this course of action because around half of GM's 50,000 workers in Europe are employed in the country, but Britain, Spain, Poland and Belgium will still be expected to stump up cash at a later stage.
Both Magna and RHJ want to cut 10,000 jobs at Opel, but Merkel and the state governments where Opel has factories prefer Magna because fewer of the cuts would fall in Germany than under RHJ's proposals.
