General Motors is currently negotiating the sale of its European operations, which include the Opel and Vauxhall brands, with PSA Group as confirmed from both companies earlier today.
“PSA Group confirms that, together with General Motors, it is exploring numerous strategic initiatives aiming at improving its profitability and operational efficiency, including a potential acquisition of Opel,” PSA said in their statement.
Earlier reports talked about that the talks between GM and PSA could lead to a merger of Opel with PSA, with the deal to be announced even within days.
General Motors and PSA already work together on some of their minivan and SUV models, as the two companies had tried to strike a merger deal unsuccessfully back in 2013 .
Merging Opel with PSA’s Peugeot, Citroen and DS would create the second-biggest auto group in Europe after VW, with about 16 percent of the European car market.
If the deal does happen, then GM will get the clean exit from Europe they want, especially after the UK’s decision to leave the EU which took a toll on their profits. On the other hand PSA sees the takeover as a good opportunity to become bigger and take advantage of Opel’s engineering.
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