GM sale of Opel to PSA could be finished as early as July

Opel, the European subsidiary of General Motors, stated its sale to France’s PSA Group could be finished as early as July 31, pending regulatory approval from antitrust authorities.

In March, when Peugeot owner PSA accepted to purchase Opel from General Motors in an deal valuing the company at 2.2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), the companies said the deal could be finished by year end.

On Thursday, GM indicated a deal might be possible before the expected.

“We validate that the closing is expected to occur in the 2nd half of 2017 as planned, which the date of 31 July makes up a very first assumption for the earliest possible date, based on the choice of the competition authorities,” Opel stated.

Allgemeine Zeitung, the German newspaper, was first to note the closing date to be as early as end July.

A quick closing has been enabled because GM officially agreed to secure factory tasks by finalizing binding contracts recently, a trade union source informed Reuters.