It felt as if negotiations would go on for an eternity, with months of stalling: search this site for ‘Opel bid’ and the stories of stops and starts come thick and fast.  Now, just as it seemed that the deal was finally coming to a close, comes the spectacular announcement that GM will not in fact sell off its loss-making European unit Opel to the consortium of Canadian part-maker Magna and Russia’s Sberbank, preferring to restructure it itself as the economic climate warms. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had pledged €4.5bn in loans may well be fuming and apparently Prime Minister Putin has chimed in with his consternation over the abortive deal, which had promised to cement Russia-Germany business ties and heralded the overcoming of US Cold-War era fears about sharing technology with its old adversary.  He has reportedly stated that a ‘deep legal analysis of the situation‘ will be undertaken.  The Times reports:

Mr Putin’s spokesman said: “The decision by General Motors arouses surprise in Russia. According to our information the Magna-Sberbank consortium is intending to carry out discussions with General Motors very soon and carry out a deep legal analysis of the situation.” The Russian Government has repeatedly said that the sale of Opel to a Russian-backed group would show the readiness of US President Barack Obama to boost economic ties with Russia.