Filed under: Government/Legal, Volkswagen, Earnings/Financials, Opel

You knew that something like this was coming sooner or later: at least one of Magna's clients have found the supplier's majority stake in Opel to be a conflict of interest. As it turns out, Volkswagen was the first automaker to cry foul.

Magna is a major supplier for VW and its brands, while Opel is a big-time competitor. Spokesman Michael Brendel says the company going to "monitor this development very closely." We're guessing that translates roughly to "'if Opel receives any preferential treatment over VW whatsoever, heads will roll."

Should all go according to plan, Magna and its partner Sberbank will have a combined 55% stake in the new Opel. GM will retain a 35% stake, while Opel's 25,000 employees will receive the remaining 10% in the company. The German government provided 1.5 billion euro to keep Opel from entering GM bankruptcy proceedings, making the deal with Magna possible.

Magna expects Opel to once again become profitable within four years, and the Canada-based supplier intends to bring Opels to Canada by the end of the year. Opel vehicles will not be making their way to the U.S. under the terms of the agreement, however.

Magna co-CEO Siegfried Wolf expects the Opel deal to be signed off on in the next five weeks.

[Source: Automotive News subs req'd]

REPORT: VW takes issue with Magna/Opel tie-up originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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