GM Pays 200M Euro Opel Loan Tranche

General Motors paid last week another tranche from the Opel loan it received back in June to keep the company alive, company representatives said in a statement. The German government agreed during the summer to grant 1.5 billion euro to General Motors to keep Opel alive until the company finds a new investor. However, after the US-based carmaker decided to retain possession of the German brand, the state of Germany insisted that GM must pay back the loan and even contribute to the Opel restructuring process.

"We now have an outstanding balance of 400 million euros, which we expect to pay back by November 30," Enrico Digirolamo, GM Europe chief financial officer, said in a statement according to Autonews.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said in a statement last week that General Motors should also contribute to the money needed to restructure Opel after scrapping the sale to Magna International.

"I expressed my expectation that General Motors should basically carry out the financing itself," Bruederle stated last week after a meeting with Nick Reilly, newly-appointed head of GM's European business, and John Smith, who was in charge of the Magna - Opel negotiations.

Meanwhile, General Motors claims that EU's concerns over a potential sale to Magna International that might favor Germany led to the decision to keep Opel.

"The catalyst for all this was the EU saying you only made the money available to one investor," board chairman Ed Whitacre said. "The board did what they should have done and revisited the issue. We had to ask ourselves how we could be a global player and not play globally."