Merkel expects GM thanks for loan
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:58German Chancellor Angela Merkel says US car maker General Motors has repaid €1.5 billion in loans it received from Germany to keep its troubled European division Opel afloat.
'The Opel operation has not cost the German taxpayer a cent,' Merkel said in a speech in Berlin. She added that she expected 'a comprehensive thank-you letter from General Motors in a few years'.
GM agreed in September to sell a majority stake in Opel, which includes Vauxhall in Britain, to Canadian auto parts maker Magna and Russian state-owned lender Sberbank.
But it has since decided that it wants to keep the loss-making division and restructure itself, with the loss of around 10,000 jobs across Europe. It has not yet said where the jobs will be cut and which plants will be closed.
The news infuriated Germany and Merkel, who had invested a lot of political capital in the deal with Magna-Sberbank. Earlier today, GM Europe head Nick Reilly said the firm expected to keep open its plant in Bochum in western Germany.
