Sources close to the matter have told Reuters that PSA has reached an agreement to buy Opel from General Motors and will make the important transaction official as early as Monday. The deal was supposedly inked on Friday when PSA's board of directors gave its green light, following last month's confirmed negotiations about the French group's intentions to acquire Opel and its British counterpart, Vauxhall.
It wasn't a smooth negotiation process as there were some bumps in the road regarding the roughly $10 billion in Opel pension liabilities and also about whether a PSA-owned Opel would be allowed to go up against Chevrolet in China and other markets. There was also the matter of potential job losses, but PSA has made the promise to "respect the existing agreements." That being said, two sources with knowledge about the deal have told Reuters job and plant cuts were discussed during the negotiations, with Vauxhall being the most vulnerable.
PSA boss Carlos Tavares says buying Opel offers an "opportunity to create a European car champion" and at the same time it will help the conglomerate sell more than five million cars each year. Not only that, but he also believes PSA's decision to fully acquire Opel will bring savings of as much as €2 billion (about $2.1B).
2016 was Opel's 16th consecutive year of losses, so it will be interesting to see what will happen to the Rüsselsheim-based marque in the years to come under PSA's umbrella. It is believed Tavares is aiming for rapid savings by redeveloping the main Opel models with PSA's own technologies.
All in all, it seems like it's a done deal, so all there's left to do now is to make it official. Spokespeople for both Opel and PSA have refused to talk about the transaction, which means we'll have to wait until Monday to find out whether the report will pan out.
