Adam Opel Gmbh or commonly known Opel is an old, German brand. Its future was thrown into uncertainty amidst rising global crisis last year. Till date this brand was being marketed by GM India in the country. Now General Motors intends to promote its own brand Cheverolet in India rather than Opel. A deal has been done on 30 May 2009 that operations of Opel will be transferred to a consortium led by Sberbank of Russia (35 per cent), Magna International of Canada (20 per cent), and Opel employees and car dealers (10 per cent). GM Europe will hold 35 percent stake in the consortium.
General Motors India has already announced and officially stated that its operations in India remain unaffected in spite of its parent company filing Chapter 11 back in the US. GM India was formed as a 50-50 joint venture between General Motors and Hindustan Motors. Back in 1999, General Motors bought Hindustan Motors' interests but continued to produce Opel cars at its Halol facility. Now the company uses the manufacturing unit to produce its Chevrolet brand of cars. GM seems now to be putting a lid on its Opel operations.
