RHJ Sweetens Opel Deal, But Could It Be Stalled Until Elections Are Over?

Miscellaneous | Dean | August 13, 2009 at 20:19

Once again, more talk about the Opel, RHJ & Magna deal. It’s been reported that RHJ has ’sweetened’ their deal as the Belgian-based company will only need 3 billion euros in aid from the government, which works out to be 800 million euros less than the original amount first proposed.

When RHJ was asked about this, the company declined to comment on their improvements in an attempt to try and gain support from the German government. Despite the changes from the company, it was said that the economic minister for Germany is currently unaware of any changes.

Opel’s labour leader, Klaus Franz stated that he was worried about RHJ’s investment as it might hinder the future plans of Opel as the company would like to ’scale’ back on investments. RHJ replied to this statement by saying that it is ‘utter nonsense’.

Although this deal is long underway there has been a nervous suspicion that the deal might only continue after the German elections are over, which means that we might only find out who the new owner is during the September month.

RHJ still however maintains the point that they will make more commercial sense for the German brand.

“We believe we have the offer that makes most commercial sense,” said Arnaud Denis, RHJ’s director of investor relations. “But it’s difficult to surmise when this will be decided. There are some people who think this could drag out until after the German election.”