Spain Gives Green Light to Magna-Opel Deal

A piece of good news came for Canadian parts maker Magna from Spain today, as one major obstacle was overcome. The Zaragoza facility workers have agreed to accept the proposed job and production cuts, after intense negotiations between the involved parties. It was not made clear however if the workers approved to the terms "as are" or Magna had to make additional concessions, yet a statement made by a worker representative hints that way...

"We decided to modify the plan Magna had for us," Ana Sanchez, director of CCOO, one of the two biggest unions at the Opel plant was quoted as saying by the source.

On the other front, Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank notified today the European Union's antitrust body of their takeover plan. GM's board will hold its monthly meeting on November 3, with a big part of the agenda set of studying (or re-studying) Magna's bid for Opel.

"Work will continue to resolve remaining open points with the Magna/Sberbank proposal—for example, related to labor cost reductions and the government-backed financing package — to document the related understandings, and complete all preparations for the signing of binding agreements should that be authorized by GM’s Board at the November 3 meeting," John Smith, GM’s chief negotiator for the sale of a stake in Opel/Vauxhall said in a statement.

Germany hints that, as far as it can see, there will be no other problems in the takeover attempt, after months of setbacks led to the assumption that GM may after all consider keeping Opel.