General Motors plans threefold boost in Opel investment (Roundup)

Mar 2, 2010, 12:06 GMT

Ruesselsheim, Germany - US car giant General Motors (GM) plans to increase investment in its European subsidiary Opel by three times as much as previously planned, German-based Opel announced on Tuesday.

Under the revised plans, GM is to pump 1.9 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) into Opel - up from a planned 600 million euros, Adam Opel GmbH announced in Ruesselsheim.

This would also bring the volume of credits and guarantees requested from European Union states down from 2.7 billion euros to below 2 billion dollars.

The bulk of Opel's production is based in Germany, but it also has plants in Poland, Britain, Spain, Hungary and Austria. A factory in Antwerp, Belgium, is due to be closed over the course of 2010.

Announcing the plans for the funding increase, Opel chief Nick Reilly said it was 'the right course of action for Opel/Vauxhall and should clearly signal our determination to fix our business.'

The decision means that GM would carry more than half the cost of restructuring Opel, previously estimated at 3.3 billion euros.

'It is of vital importance for GM to demonstrate our commitment for our European operations,' said GM chairman Ed Whitacre.

'Beyond the purely financial aspects, we see this as a major step towards instilling renewed trust and confidence into Opel/Vauxhall's customers, employees, business partners, unions, dealers and European governments,' he said.