General Motors Co. CEO Fritz Henderson kicked off a sales challenge worthy of the slickest used car dealer on Monday, traveling to Germany to meet with leaders of the company's Adam Opel GmbH unit to discuss the European automaker's future inside of GM.
Henderson arrives in Germany accompanied by GM international operations director Nick Reilly, seeking a first-hand look at the situation at Opel, according to GM. It is the executive's first chance to meet in person with Opel officials since GM's surprise announcement last week that it will scrap a planned sale of Opel to a consortium led by Magna International Inc. (NYSE:MGA). The move angered German political officials and Opel union leaders.
GM needs those groups in its camp now if it is to successfully restructure Opel, but Henderson is unlikely to be well received. German Economic Minister Rainer Bruederle,
according to an Associated Press report, told German television Sunday that he was uncertain whether GM could come up with a transformation plan for Opel quickly, saying he was "very skeptical whether the company, which handled this so badly, has new ideas overnight."
Henderson will have to rework Opel without Carl-Peter Forster, who came to the company in 2001 and who has served as its CEO in recent years. Forster, a proponent of the Magna deal,
announced his resignation on Friday and will reportedly become the CEO of India's Tata Motors Ltd. Detroit sources say that Reilly will oversee Opel on an interim basis, with some reports out of Europe naming Magna executive Herbert Demel as a possible long-term replacement for Forster. -
Lou Whiteman
Lou Whiteman is a senior writer covering the automotive, transportation and industrial sectors. Follow him on Twitter @louwhiteman
Join Corporate Dealmaker's LinkedIn forum
Juergen Lasowski
And the winners are...
