Putin Satisfied with GM's Opel Sale

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today that General Motors did the right thing to sell Opel to Magna and Sberbank and revealed that the two allies are currently involved in deep talks with trade unions. According to a report by Reuters, Putin expressed his confidence that both Magna and Sberbank will try anything that's possible to preserve jobs at their plants in Opel's both domestic and overseas markets.

"I hope this decision is one of the first steps that will lead us to true integration in the world community," Putin said at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow according to the aforementioned source. "GM made the right decision while taking into account the social consequences. Magna and Sberbank made their bid on overcoming the crisis though not forgetting the possible social consequences. Their proposal guarantees that jobs will be kept," Putin added.

General Motors revealed yesterday that the company's board has decided to sell Opel to Magna, with the Canadian - Austrian partsmaker and its Russian partner Sberbank to take control of a 55 percent stake. General Motors will still hold a 35 percent in the company, while Opel's employees will receive 10 percent. GM expects to close the deal in a few months, with Magna hoping to return to profit by 2011.

"It was very difficult to fight calls to spend more and more when we had the money," Putin said when speaking about Russia's auto sector. "At the moment the task is to restore our macroeconomic indicators, to lower the pace of inflation without allowing the appreciation of the national currency on the scale that happened in previous years," he added.