Sberbank seeks compensation from GM for scrapped Opel deal
28 Dec 2009
Russia's Sberbank is seeking compensation from General Motors (GM) to recoup costs from a collapsed deal to buy German carmaker Opel.
In September, GM had agreed to sell 55 per cent stake in its German unit Adam Opel GmbH and its UK sister company Vauxhall to Canadian car-parts maker Magna International Inc (MGA) and its Russian partner OAO Sberbank (See: Magna, Sberbank win GM's Opel, Vauxhall units).
However, the US carmaker walked away from the deal in November citing improving business environment for the company (See: GM says 'No' to Magna; decides to keep Opel).
Sberbank head German Gref told Russia's Vesti television that he hoped GM would freely agree to restitution. If the US auto giant did not agree, Sberbank would take legal action, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Gref as saying.
He said the explanations given by GM about the deal's collapse were not sufficient.
Sberbank said it structured 9,000 contract pages during the negotiations. Unless Russian corporate lawyers are that much cheaper than their American counterparts, the associated legal fees could probably be described by the word "heinous", reported the Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) news agency.