But it will be managed by Magna

The buyers of the German Opel will be the Canadian Magna and the Russian Sberbank, they will make an advance payment for its controlling stake tomorrow. The key market for Opel should be Russia, where the brand should occupy up to 20%, which means an increase in its current market share by an order of magnitude.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Saturday that the Canadian Magna and Russian Sberbank will become buyers of a controlling stake in Opel. She clarified that such a deal is supported by the German government and that US President Barack Obama is also interested in it. Magna co-CEO Siegfried Wolf said that the company will complete the deal with General Motors (GM, the seller of 100% of Opel shares) within four to five weeks, and will make an advance payment for the purchased securities in the amount of 300 million euros tomorrow (in total, Magna will invest about 500 million in Opel million euros). It is not specified when and how Russian Sberbank will pay its share; the bank itself declined to comment. Magna previously reported that Sberbank will become one of the largest shareholders in Opel with a 35% stake (Magna itself will receive no more than 20%). Another 35% of Opel shares will remain with GM, and the remaining 10% will remain with the workforce.

Despite the fact that Sberbank will become the largest owner of Opel along with GM, it will not determine its strategy and production policy. According to Hesse Prime Minister Roland Koch, “the Russian partner will only be a shareholder,” and “Magna will be responsible for management.”

By purchasing Opel, Magna and Sberbank will gain control of eight production sites in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Spain and the UK. Last year they produced 1.47 million cars. Magna may close plants in Belgium and one plant in the UK (there are two of them), reducing Opel employees to 10-11 thousand (Opel has 55 thousand people in total). The headquarters will remain in Rüsselsheim, and Opel will be led by the current head of GM Europe, Karl-Peter Forster.

The key market for Opel should be Russian: in the future, Opel should take a 20% market share there, Magna says. This means an increase in the share by an order of magnitude: according to the results of January-April 2009, Opel took no more than 3%, ending up in 11th place in sales. Magna hopes to increase its share through a partnership with the Russian GAZ group, which can provide it with a conveyor belt from the Gorky Automobile Plant for assembling passenger cars (it currently produces the Volga Siber sedan, with a capacity of 160-180 thousand cars per year). The GAZ group only confirms its readiness to become an industrial partner of Magna, but refuses further comments.

It is not yet clear how the localization of Opel production in Russia will proceed and how realistic the production volume of 180 thousand cars is - it is not realistic to sell such a volume in a falling car market, says Mikhail Pak from IFC Metropol. In any case, there are more pros than cons for the Russian auto industry in this deal, if only because the production of GAZ passenger cars will finally become profitable.

Dmitry Kommersant-Belikov, Seda Kommersant-Egikyan

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