Despite calls from Wall Street for General Motors to sell its Opel division, the Detroit-based automaker says it has no plans to unload its European operations.
Likening Opel's turnaround to a marathon race, company CFO Michael Lohscheller says that the division is on the track to recovery but simply needs more time to complete its transition. Opel has lost $16 billion over the last 12 years, but Lohscheller says a return to profitability is within reach.
"To run a marathon you need a reasonable basic speed, but you also have to sweat it out and ideally pick up the pace a bit towards the end. That has a lot in common with what we are doing here," Lohscheller told Reuters.
"We cannot just take off in a sprint and then be completely out of breath after three months, we need to be able to stick to our speed and maintain it - endurance is extremely important. Opel's recovery is a long term project."
Lohscheller remarks come a day after Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote that GM should sell Opel. Diverging itself of Opel would cost about $13 billion, which Jonas argues could be far less than the amount that will be needed to fund the company's 10-year turnaround plan.
