GM board shakes up management, moves on Opel

• Source: Global Times
• [11:30 September 10 2009]
• Comments

General Motors Co shook up its management and dispatched a negotiator on the sale of its Opel unit to Berlin after a watershed two-day board meeting under the direction of Chairman Ed Whitacre, people familiar with the proceedings said.

GM's 13-member board endorsed the departure of GM's chief financial officer, a new marketing campaign aimed at winning back skeptical US consumers and a still-sealed decision on Opel that will be conveyed to German officials on Thursday, the sources said.

As part of the board review, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, 47, will leave the automaker after an 18-month stint that included a failed effort to avoid bankruptcy, according to the sources, who were not authorized to discuss the situation.

Meanwhile, John Smith, the GM executive who has headed months of negotiations with the German government and two potential bidders for GM's Opel unit, was on his way to Berlin, the sources said.

Smith will brief the German trust supervising Opel and German government officials before news conferences scheduled for Thursday in Germany, the sources said.

It was not immediately clear what action the GM board had taken on Opel after spending the past month weighing the merits of selling the European unit against the cost of keeping it.

A group led by Canadian auto group Magna International has a promise for the financial backing of the German government to take control of Opel.

Brussels-listed RHJ International has a rival bid that GM management has said would be easier to implement.

On Monday, financial adviser KPMG presented a report to GM's board that said the automaker's management had used "overly optimistic" assumptions when it prepared an earlier estimate of the cost of keeping Opel.

(Reuters)