Poland

Time is running out for German political leaders to provide financial help for General Motors Co.'s European Opel division—or risk the loss of more domestic jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported. Angered by GM's surprise move to abandon plans to sell Opel this month, German politicians have so far taken a belligerent stance and are threatening to withhold state aid altogether. Economics Minister Rainer Brüderle suggested this week that Opel may no longer qualify for aid regardless of what restructuring plan GM presents, a sentiment echoed by several other influential politicians.

A team of General Motors Co. executives will arrive in Germany on Monday to fine-tune a restructuring plan for Adam Opel GmbH and search out a new leader for the European unit, company officials said. The U.S. auto maker said Friday that Carl-Peter Forster, who worked for GM for more than nine years, is quitting as chief executive of GM Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. The decision follows a vote by the company's board of directors on Tuesday to scrap a plan to sell control of the German Opel unit to Magna International Inc. and Russia's Sberbank.

Poland chose potential bidders for Warsaw Stock Exchange SA and announced plans to privatize strategic energy and mining companies in an effort to plug a gaping budget deficit, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move to sell government stakes in copper miner KGHM Polska Miedz SA and oil refinery Grupa Lotos SA took markets by surprise. Many analysts had been skeptical the government would carry through with such politically sensitive sales amid a recession.

The European Commission on Wednesday cleared the Polish government's state aid of €251 million ($356.4 million) to the Gdansk Shipyard, ending a long-running legal battle, The Wall Street Journal reported. The commission, the European Union's executive arm, has been investigating state subsidies for the historic shipyard, where the Solidarity trade-union movement was born, since 2004. Much of the state aid cleared by the commission has already been paid to the shipyard. The commission said in its ruling that the state subsidies gave the shipyard an unfair advantage over rivals.

India's biggest energy group, Reliance Industries Ltd, said on Wednesday a European textile unit, Trevira, had applied in a German court to start of insolvency proceedings with a restructuring plan, Reuters reported. "The move follows major efforts by the company to overcome the impact of industrial slowdown in Europe particularly of the automotive and textile sectors to whom it is an important supplier," Reliance, India's most valuable listed firm, said in a statement. Trevira makes polyester fibres and filament yarns, and reported turnover of €323 million ($459 million) in 2008.

BTA Bank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, began talks with creditors to renegotiate payments on as much as $15 billion of debt in a bid to avert bankruptcy, Chief Executive Officer Anvar Saidenov said. “The viability of the institution will depend on how successful we are in negotiating with our creditors,” Saidenov, who is also chairman of BTA’s management board, said today in an interview in London.

Polish corporate bankruptcies rose by 25 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009 to 126, a sharp reversal in a positive downward trend observed from 2002, Coface Poland said in a report on Monday. In 2008 the number of bankruptcies declined by 7 percent year-on-year, said the report, quoted by Polish news agency PAP. "In 2009 bankruptcy statistics, firms are appearing whose bankruptcy was directly influenced by crisis-related factors," the report said, identifying a dramatic decline in the number of orders as a primary bankruptcy factor.

The president of Poland challenged the view that Eastern Europe as a whole is heading into a deep recession that is dragging down Western Europe and posing grave risks to the global economy, warning in an interview against lumping all countries in the region "into one basket," the International Herald Tribune reported. "We were hit as everyone else by the crisis, though we have not suffered to the degree that some other countries have," President Lech Kaczynski said Tuesday.

General Motors' German unit Opel could slash 3,500 jobs as part of a plan to cut costs and relaunch as an independent company, GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster told Bild newspaper. Staff reductions would hopefully not exceed that figure at Opel, which employs around 25,000 workers in Germany, he told the daily on Wednesday. To survive, Opel needs around €3.3 billion ($4.17 billion) in state aid from European governments to save jobs and keep plants open, the company has said.

Automotive supplier Tedrive has filed for insolvency for two German units, citing a recent slump in orders, according to the company's insolvency administrator, The Guardian reported. Tedrive was the second industry player to file for insolvency in the region within a week, after German brake pad maker TMD Friction did the same for four German plants. The administrator said Tedrive aimed to restructure its business at the two units. The units make driveshafts and steering systems, and have a total of 1,500 workers.