German Government: Fiat GM Plan Doesn't Include 10 Plant Closures
06 Mai 2009 - 3:20PM
Dow Jones News
Italian carmaker Fiat SpA's (FIATY) plan for a merger with
General Motors Corp.'s (GM) European operations presented to the
German government doesn't include the closure of 10 plants
throughout Europe and the loss of 18,000 jobs, a German economics
ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
He rejected the report of such a plan in German daily
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, or FAZ, which had cited an internal
Fiat document.
"The model which has been reported...is from the beginning of
April and is therefore no longer up to date or at least not the
model which has been part of the last talks," ministry spokesman
Steffen Moritz told reporters.
Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne met with German
government officials Monday to outline the company's plan for a
merger of Fiat with German car maker Adam Opel GmbH and GM
Europe.
FAZ had also reported that most of the planned jobs cuts would
take place in Italy and England.
Moritz said that no new talks have been conducted since with
Austrian-Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. (MGA),
which had presented a rough plan for General Motors Corp.'s (GM)
European unit Adam Opel GmbH last week.
Web site: www.bmwi.de
-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-30-288-8410;
andrea.thomas@dowjones.com