Refund please
December 26, 2009
Russia's Sberbank is seeking compensation from General Motors to recoup costs from the unsuccessful deal to buy the German carmaker Opel.
Sberbank head German Gref told Russian television that he hoped GM would freely agree to restitution. If the beleaguered US auto company did not agree, Sberbank would take legal action, Gref said.
"We have formulated all the expenses now and forwarded to the company a proposal on voluntary compensation of the costs," the Ria-Novosti news agency quoted Gref.
He said the explanations given by GM about the deal's collapse were insufficient. GM had agreed to sell a majority of Opel to Canadian-Austrian autoparts company Magna and its partner Sberbank, before deciding not to sell the unit after all and instead to restructure Opel itself at the last minute.
The paperwork was ready
Sberbank had been poised to assume 35 percent of Opel, while Magna was to take a 20 percent stake. Russia had hoped the deal would provide a needed shot in the arm for its ailing auto industry.
"Nine months of talks, 9,000 initialed pages of the contract had been ready for signing," Gref said according to Interfax. "And two days before the deal GM abandoned it."
Sberbank, the largest credit institution in Russia, accounts for about a quarter of the aggregate Russian banking assets and a third of banking capital.
For 2009 Sberbank's net income decreased to 18.5 billion rubles from 113.2 billion rubles, almost 84 percent year-over-year, according to an 11 month statement of financial highlights based on Russian accounting standards
sjt/dpa/AFP/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer