Sberbank may sell its stake in Opel to another Russian bank
By Andrew C., 27 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
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The hurdles are not over for the planned takeover of Magna International and Sberbank of General Motor's Opel/Vauxhall segment. Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender, is looking for a domestic carmaker to be its industrial partner. If it is not successful, it may just sell its stake in Opel to VEB, another state-run bank, according to Sberbank's CEO German Gref in an interview with Reuters. Local carmakers in Russia are reporting major losses since demand has dropped and they're simply unable to compete with foreign carmakers. That is why Russia wishes to obtain Western technologies; it intends to re-energize its domestic firms. Gref added that if Sberbank falls short of linking Opel with a domestic partner such as GAZ, Russia's second largest domestic automaker, "it would set back hope that Russia can seize the crisis as an opportunity to bring struggling industries up to date." Canadian supplier Magna International Inc. and Sberbank are near to completing their plan to purchase a 55 percent stake in Opel from General Motors Co. Each partner will hold 27.5 percent.
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