GM Finalizes Sale of Opel to PSA Group

General Motors Co. has completed the $2.5 billion sale of its 88-year old Opel Automobile GmbH unit to PSA Group.

PSA vows that the Opel brand will remain German, and the unit’s Vauxhall brand will remain British. Combining those operations with PSA will increase the company’s market share in Europe to 17%, second only to Volkswagen Group­.

PSA has announced a new Opel management team that will present a business plan 100 days from now. The top five members are:

• Michael Lohscheller, CEO, formerly Opel’s chief financial officer
• Philippe de Rovira, CFO, previously group controller for PSA
• Christian Mueller, vice president of engineering, previously Opel’s vice president of global propulsion systems
• Remi Girardon, vice president of manufacturing, formerly PSA’s vice president of group industrial strategy
• Michelle Wen, vice president of purchasing and supply chain, formerly supply chain chief for Vodafone

Lohscheller promises a much leaner management structure for Opel that includes fewer direct reports and faster decision making. PSA has estimated the merger will reduce annual costs by about €1.7 billion ($2 billion). Opel expects to achieve profitability by 2020 and a 6% operating profit margin by 2026.

Separately, GM expects to finalize the sale of its European financial operations to PSA and BNP Paribas later this year.