GM May Have Found A Buyer For Their Antwerp Plant

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

GM has a $530m millstone around its neck. It’s the closed and unsold Antwerp plant. Nobody wants it. The Antwerp assets are turning into a liability which endangers the GM IPO. Now it looks like GM found a savior that could take the plant off their hands. Guess where he comes from. Hint: Not from Washington.

Again, the savior come from China. GM “has agreed to discuss with Chinese interests the future of its Antwerp plant,” a union official told AFP. It’s no idle chatter. “Talks are going to get underway immediately with Chinese investors,” said Rudi Kennes of the FGTB union after a meeting between the plant’s works council and Opel head Nick Reilly.

The Chinese interests are so far undisclosed. One matter has been made clear: It’s not Geely. Why should they. Volvo already has a plant in Belgium.

GM is increasingly dependent on China. No only is China GM’s largest market. China bailed-out GM in India, the rumors of a Chinese engagement in the IPO won’t stop. Two car companies are essential in China: Volkswagen and GM. Volkswagen looks pretty healthy. GM needs help, and China is ready to oblige. Just keep one thing in mind: Connections and mutual assistance are inherent to the Chinese culture. But if you ask for a favor, prepare yourself to pay it back. I can imagine that the Chinese interests won’t just buy empty buildings. If assembly lines and tooling would be left behind, they wouldn’t object.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Trend-Shifter Trend-Shifter on Oct 10, 2010

    SAIC could be on the path to be the next Opel owner or build their own cars in Europe GM could probably live with that since they still would have a finger or two in the pie. At the sme time the transaction could be done quickly ahead of the IPO.

  • AJ AJ on Oct 10, 2010

    I thought when the two cars met in the beginning that it was going to be like Rambo 3 when Rambo met the evil Russian commander, both in tanks to fight it out! That would be cool!

  • Gardiner Westbound Gardiner Westbound on Oct 11, 2010

    One soldier said to another, "I shined my boots for this?"

  • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Oct 22, 2010

    FWIW, $530MM? Ooh boy. The Xler plant in STL in the process of being flattened had $300MM in recent updates - so what? It's still worthless save for the land. A used car plant is worth slightly more than nothing as they all come as hazardous waste sites. The US EPA will spend 500MM+ cleaning up the post-BK GM plants. Facts on the ground are that Antwerp is worth Land-remediation. Anything beyond that is selling ice to Eskimoes...

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