Bloomberg News - General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson said more time is needed before announcing details to fix its money-losing European operations.
"We're in dialogue with all of the constituencies and it's multinational, given our footprint in Europe," he told reporters in Beijing for the China auto show. "We hope within the next couple of months to be able to speak more specifically about the details of a plan going forward."
In February, Akerson said it would take a "couple of months" before disclosing plans to improve GM's European operations. Karl-Friedrich Stracke, head of GM Europe and chief executive officer of the Opel unit, said at the Geneva motor show in March that it would take two to three months "before we can speak more precisely on further details."
Akerson is trying to stem losses at GM Europe after the unit lost $747 million last year before interest and taxes. The company had previously expected to break even in 2011 until economic conditions in Europe worsened in last year's second half.
"I'm not going to make a forecast on break even because, as you know, the market in Europe is fluid," Akerson said, mentioning Greece and Spain.
Even before Europe's economic slowdown, GM struggled on the continent. It losses in the region have totaled $15.6 billion since 1999, and the average of four analysts' estimates for this year is a $1.2 billion deficit. In 2009, GM was near selling a majority stake in Opel to Magna International Inc. and partner OAO Sberbank until some board members, including Akerson, agitated to keep it.
"Do we ever regret not selling Opel?" Akerson said today in Beijing. "I suppose you'd get different points of views on the board, to be honest with you. It doesn't matter if we have regrets or not. We are a global company with a global footprint with a company that's not unlike many other European companies given economic turmoil. We simply have to match production with demand."
Vice Chairman Steve Girsky told analysts on April 4 in New York that the turnaround plan would come in small steps.
"When you look at Europe, everybody is expecting one big-bang, here's the plan and everything like that," Girsky said. "More of what you're going to see is a bunch of incremental announcements."
Separately, Akerson said GM plans to add 600 dealerships in China this year. The company had 2,900 last year.
