Peugeot boss Tavares has phoned Chancellor Merkel and talked about the planned Opel takeover. According to federal government, he gave an employment guarantee for the employees. But that does not last forever.
Opel plant in Kaiserslautern
Tuesday, 21.02.2017
16:19 clock
Peugeot boss Carlos Tavares has assured Chancellor Merkel that the French accept the ongoing guarantees for locations and jobs in Germany in an Opel takeover. The government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Tuesday after a phone call from Merkel and Tavares.
Tavares affirmed that Peugeot “will maintain the independence of Opel in the group and take over the location, investment and employment guarantees”. That means: Peugeot assures to hold on to the job guarantee until the end of 2018 and the investment commitments for the Opel locations in Germany until 2020. After that threatens according to experts, however a tough rehabilitation course,
The Peugeot boss had emphasized in the telephone call that both enterprises complemented each other well, said Seibert. The French carmaker announced in turn that Merkel had been in the conversation “very open” for a takeover of Opel by Peugeot.
Federal Labor Minister Andrea Nahles (SPD) also welcomes the planned takeover. During a company visit in Berlin, she said that the acquisition could create a “win-win situation”. “We believe that both locations can benefit from it, the French and the German factories,” said the SPD politician. “The cooperation on German-French basis can really produce a champion company.”
The French car manufacturer PSA-Peugeot-Citroën wants to buy Opel from the US carmaker General Motors. Opel employs a good 19,000 people in Germany and, in addition to the main plant in Rüsselsheim, also has factories in Kaiserslautern and Eisenach as well as a spare parts center in Bochum.