Putin More Than Just Mad at GM

Russian Prime minister Vladimir Putin promised that he would take into consideration GM’s negligence, after the US corporation took an U-turn in the sale of German car maker giant to the consortium of Russia’s Sberbank and Canada’s Magna.

Photo: Putin More Than Just Mad at GM

Putin More Than Just Mad at GM

"The last-minute refusal to complete the Opel deal is not harmful to our interests, but it shows that our American partners have a very original culture when dealing with counterparties. We will have to take into account this style of dealing with partners in the future, though this scornful approach toward partners mainly affects the Europeans, not us. GM did not warn anyone, did not speak to anyone… despite all the agreements reached and documents signed. Well, I think it is a good lesson,” Putin said at a recent meeting of his government.

“We will work with everyone, including American producers. GM is represented in Russia, and we will maintain its activities in Russia just like we will maintain our contacts with European producers,” Putin added.

Russia ’s Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko is against over-dramatizing the situation.

“I would not interpret this as a tragedy for the Russian automotive industry,” he said. “We have gained some good experience in handling situations like this one, deals like this one. Now we are in the process of finalizing a development strategy for the automotive industry up to the year 2020, and in doing so we take this circumstance into account,” the official said.

On September 10, General Motors announced that it would sell Opel to a consortium of Canada's auto parts maker Magna and Russia's largest bank, Sberbank. The decision was approved by the Opel board and the German government, RIA Novosti  said

According to the previous plans, the Magna-Sberbank consortium was to have a 55% stake in Opel on a parity basis, and the German carmaker was to control 10%, with GM retaining 35%.