German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a visit to Opel in Rüsselsheim.
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) and Groupe PSA (Paris:UG) yesterday announced the close of the sale of GM’s Opel/Vauxhall business to the Groupe PSA. GM claims with some justification that the sale represents a win for all stakeholders – really stockholders potentially – and is the latest, most significant in a series of actions GM has taken to strengthen its global enterprise and position itself for the future, while immediately improving the company’s financial performance. (General Motors Sells Opel/Vauxhall to PSA Group for €2.2B)
This ends almost 100 years of GM in Europe, leaving only the slow expansion of the Cadillac brand, and the sale – it’s more like a hobby than a business – of niche vehicles, the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette, both imports, as GM’s only presence in the world’s third largest vehicle market. GM’s Lyft and Maven will eventually appear in Europe, AutoInformed opines.
It makes PSA Group Number 2 in European sales at 3 million behind Volkswagen Group at 4 million. With the addition of Opel/Vauxhall, which generated revenue of €17.7 billion in 2016, PSA in Europe will have a 17% market share.
“We’ve taken another bold step in our ongoing work to transform GM,” said GM President Dan Ammann. “This transaction allows us to sharply focus our resources on higher-return opportunities as we expand our technical and business leadership in the future of mobility.”
The sale of GM Financial’s European operations to Groupe PSA and BNP Paribas is expected to close later this year, subject to various regulatory approvals.
