DealZone

RHJ International, a bidder for Opel, told a German newspaper it might consider selling Opel back to GM after it does its private equity triage on the European carmaker. “Let us be pragmatic. It won’t work without General Motors,” Leonhard Fischer, RHJ’s CEO, told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. It reported Fischer was explicitly not ruling out the option of selling Opel to GM after RHJ had completed its restructuring of the ailing carmaker.

As far as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is concerned, Canada’s Magna is the preferred partner for Opel. The GM Opel Works Council this morning is demanding greater say in the sale of the company. Specifically, it said GM should not be able to buy back a stake in the company. It also flexed a bit of muscle, saying if it doesn’t get a greater say over who ends up owning Opel, it won’t play ball on achieving structural cost savings.