NEWS

SAAB has been saved at the 11th hour by Swedish supercar maker Spyker after a long tangled sale process. The on-off-on-off sale by GM finally came after Saab had been given the last rites by the American giant. A deal is expected to now be concluded by the end of February, which will create an [...]

OPEL will close its Astra production plant in Belgium in an effort to cut production by 20%. The news is grim for Belgian workers, but does secure the future of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant. Vauxhall Opel wants to streamline production – because, says Opel CEO Nick Reilly, 2010 Western Europe car sales will be 1.5 [...]

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has reportedly made a shock move to buy Swedish car maker Saab! GM had said a deal to sell Saab is unlikely – but last ditch attempts by several parties are being prepared. The deadline for offers was 10pm yesterday. GM chief exec Ed Whitacre initially said no bidders have come [...]

SAAB could be saved at the 11th hour after supercar firm Spyker tabled a last minute offer to owners GM. The Dutch supercar maker says the new proposal overcomes all the hurdles GM found in the previous rejected offer. Previous due diligence raised a number of issues, said Spyker chief Victor Muller. The new 11 [...]

SAAB is to CLOSE, General Motors has just announced, after the US firm failed to sell the Swedish brand. A statement said GM is beginning ‘orderly wind-down of Saab operations’. ‘Despite the best efforts of all involved, it has become very clear that the due diligence required to complete this complex transaction could not be [...]

GM boss Fritz Henderson has resigned, it was announced at this month’s GM board of directors meeting. Board chairman Ed Whitacre will now take the hot seat, until a replacement can be found. Henderson had been in the role just 8 months, and it unclear what led to the decision. GM had recently, however, announced [...]

VAUXHALL chief Nick Reilly says he is making ‘significant progress’ since taking responsibility for the brand. Explaining the decision to halt the sale of Vauxhall and Opel to Magna, he said ‘we firmly believe that both companies (are better off) with rather than without each other’. But the plans can only work if a ‘significant [...]

VAUXHALL Opel is undergoing a consultation process – but Ellesmere Port is already assured of NO redundancies. The great news for UK car workers emerged after CEO Nick Reilly summarised discussions so far yesterday. Plans for Ellesmere Port are, instead, to UP car production, by moving to 3-shift operations in 2011. This will see the [...]

SUPERCAR maker Koenigsegg has pulled out of a deal to save Saab, leaving the brand’s future in doubt. The Swedish maker of high-performance motors agreed to buy Saab from GM in August. Things were delayed when the European Investment Bank didn’t immediately offer to guarantee at €400 million loan. This did gain approval a month [...]

VAUXHALL Opel head Nick Reilly will today meet with Lord Mandelson to discuss job cuts and Government aid. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between Mandelson, Vauxhall and the Unite union since GM US decided not to sell its European arm. The BBC reports that the meeting comes prior to GM Europe revealing the [...]

JAGUAR Land Rover could soon be headed up by the recently-departed chief of Vauxhall Opel. The Sunday Times reports 55 year old Carl-Peter Forster is expected to join within a few months. Sources for the paper say his new role would be a senior one at Tata Motors, which would include overall responsibility for Jaguar [...]

VAUXHALL Opel president Carl-Peter Forster is to leave the company with immediate effect, it has been announced. His departure is seen as a result of the failed takeover by Magna International. This means GM must begin an ‘immediate external search’ for a new CEO. While that is underway, rumours suggest GM hero Bob Lutz is [...]

GOVERNMENT support is on the table for any new plans to restructure Vauxhall and GM Europe. Lord Mandelson has today confirmed that he is ‘keen for very early discussions with GM over their plans for the business and how they will affect British plants and workers. ‘I have always said that if the right long [...]

GM has CALLED OFF the sale of its European Vauxhall and Opel operations in a shock industry move. The news broke late on Tuesday 3 November. GM says it is because of an improving set of trading results over the past few months, which means it can now justify keeping the brands. The firm also [...]

EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes is looking into the proposed sale of Vauxhall/Opel to Magna. After a meeting in the European Parliament, Vicky Ford MEP said the commissioner was to seek more information, on: •    Relative efficiencies of Opel/Vauxhall plants •    Further details on possible implications of the proposed deal This is to address concerns [...]

GERMAN newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has seen leaked documents, detailing Vauxhall job cuts. According to the paper, 30 percent of Vauxhall’s two-plant UK workforce is to be cut. This equates to around 1400 jobs – with the biggest cuts to occur at the firm’s Luton van-making plant. Overall, new owners Magna are going to cut [...]

GM has now officially announced its board has agreed to sell a 55% stake in Vauxhall to Magna. The board of directors ‘supports a bid from the consortium of Magna International Inc and Sberbank to buy a majority stake in its European Opel/Vauxhall operations.’ Binding agreements, however, won’t be concluded for another few weeks. Items [...]

CAR buyers will help determine the future of Vauxhall’s UK plants, says union leader Tony Woodley. The Vauxhall brand, he says, is a huge part of GM Europe. Sales here are significant. ‘Magna needs to realise that any attempt to close plants will have an adverse market reaction,’ said the Unite chief. Any plant closures [...]

BUSINESS minister Pat McFadden says Magna has told him it sees a future for both UK Vauxhall plants. The minister said Vauxhall’s new owners Magna had personally pledged to Government that both factories are in its future plans. ‘We now have to hold them to that – make those assurances stick,’ said the minister. For [...]

VAUXHALL owner GM Europe has finally been sold to the Canadian group Magna, it has been announced. German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the announcement, ahead of an Opel Trust statement detailing the specifics. Some say it is the worst case scenario for Vauxhall. The Magna deal guarantees jobs in Germany – but leaves 10,000 jobs [...]