Opel boss quits ahead of Peugeot takeover
The chief executive of German carmaker Opel stepped down yesterday, the firm said, but will remain on the board until the group’s takeover by France’s Peugeot is completed.
Finance chief Michael Lohscheller will take over from Karl-Thomas Neumann as “spokesman” of the board at the General Motors subsidiary from Monday, Opel said in a statement. The move “will secure continuity for the business and for all stakeholders in the carmaker-as well as a seamless transfer of the firm to [Peugeot parent] PSA,” the group said.
French manufacturer PSA-which also owns Citroen and DS-agreed in early March to pay some 1.3 billion euros ($1.46 billion) for Opel, a storied German firm owned by GM for decades, as well its British subsidiary Vauxhall. A former Volkswagen and Continental man highly regarded in the German auto sector, Neumann took the reins in 2013.
But despite the progress Neumann made in winding down overcapacity and improving the brand’s image, Opel/Vauxhall continued to book heavy losses under his leadership.
Opel has lost around $15 billion since 2000, most recently ending 2016 with $257 million in the red. The carmaker, based in Ruesselsheim south of Frankfurt and with 10 factories employing 38,000 people around Europe, blamed Britain’s vote to quit the European Union and the weaker pound sterling for last year’s poor performance. German weekly the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported Sunday that while Neumann backed Opel’s tie-up with PSA, he was concerned that the French firm was not as whole-hearted about electric vehicles as himself, and that the new management would centralise all decision-making in Paris.
Opel and PSA are currently in talks with worker representatives about extending the jobs guarantees secured by employees to cover the new owners. The deal has also yet to receive the green light from competition authorities. — AFP