GM: Opel, Vauxhall Edging Closer To The Black Despite Russia

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Despite problems with the Russian market, as well as restructuring costs, General Motors says Vauxhall and Opel are on their way out of the red and into the black.

Automotive News reports the European duo took a Q3 2014 loss of $387 million, compared to $238 million lost in Q3 2013. The majority of the loss comes from Russia, where GM took $194 million in write-downs. A currency challenge with the ruble contributed $100 million to the overall figure, as well.

Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson believes that, putting aside the Russian-linked losses, Vauxhall and Opel are coming close to breaking even:

Backing out the losses from Russia, partly from the one-off charges and other related headwinds and partly from a depreciation in the ruble, Opel/Vauxhall looks to have been close to breakeven for the quarter.

GM is looking toward 2016 as the point where both of its European subsidiaries will be in the black, with future earnings between now and then tied to both the upcoming Corsa — set to arrive in January — and Astra. The Corsa already has 30,000 pre-orders, while the outgoing Astra saw its sales fall 9 percent through August 2014 to 121,950; the next-gen model will arrive in 2015.

Overall, the duo saw a 2 percent increase in sales during Q3 2014, moving 253,000. Annual sales through September climbed 8 percent to 683,797, and market share climbed a percentage point to 6.9 percent.

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

More by Cameron Aubernon

Comments
Join the conversation
12 of 14 comments
  • Tomifobia Tomifobia on Oct 27, 2014

    "Booged"?

  • Wmba Wmba on Oct 27, 2014

    We only lost $400 million this quarter, so actually barring any more idiotic moves from Putin, ha, ha, and depending on which way the wind blows, hell, we'll be coining money! A Barclays analyst says we're really breaking even, Why, we're only down 20 billion or so in the past decade, so success is just around the corner! Template #347 from the Modern PR Book of Lame Excuses, Chapter 29: How To Talk Utter Rubbish And Appear Sincere And Thoughtful.

  • Rday Rday on Oct 27, 2014

    Don't know if Putin and the rest of the criminals running Russia will ever let a foreign company make any money there. The graft and corruption will always bleed away profits. Kinda like doing business with the mafia as your partner. And we all know what happens with them.

  • MRF 95 T-Bird MRF 95 T-Bird on Oct 28, 2014

    It would be nice for us Americans to have a version of the Corsa either as a entry-level Buick or Chevy slotted between a Spark and Sonic.

    • Pch101 Pch101 on Oct 28, 2014

      The Saturn Astra wasn't exactly a success story here. I've driven previous versions of the Corsa and found them to be vastly superior to any compact produced for the US by the pre-bankruptcy GM. Still, I don't think that they would attract much interest in the US.

Next