M&A

4 November, 2009

Opel already repaid part of state loan -trustee

By Rene Wagner

BERLIN, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Carmaker Opel only owes German state and federal governments about 900 million euros because it has already paid back some of the bridging loan it received, a member of the trust overseeing Opel told Reuters on Wednesday.

Dirk Pfeil said that Opel had borrowed a total of 1.1 billion euros from the state and federal governments -- less than the maximum 1.5 billion euros they had made available. Pfeil said that 200 million euros had already been repaid.

"Opel borrowed 1.1 billion euros at the peak and 200 million euros of that has already been repaid," Pfeil told Reuters.

Earlier, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said General Motors [GM.UL] will return the money loaned by Germany to help Opel after the U.S. carmaker decided to keep its European unit. [ID:nL4519517]

GM's board had previously opted to sell a 55 percent stake in the loss-making Opel unit to Canadian group Magna and its partner Sberbank after seven months of talks.

Juergen Reinholz, economy minister of Thuringia, one of the states in Germany that hosts Opel plants, said GM had signalled it would pay back a 1.5 billion-euro German bridging loan for Opel by the end of November.

Pfeil welcomed the decision by GM to keep Opel.

"I consider it to be the right move," he said. "The chances to preserve as many jobs as possible are just as high as they would have been with Magna."

He added: "Magna would have been completely overwhelmed. Magna would have had enormous difficulties getting Opel back on the right track." (Reporting by Rene Wagner, Gernot Heller, Dave Graham; Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Source: http://www.reuters.com