The flag hanging at half-mast at General Motors Belgium.
GM wants the Opel factory in Antwerp areas of sales, but for this first pass through the Antwerp Port Authority. This shows itself already an interested buyer.
During the press conference at the Sheraton Hotel at the Brussels airport sounded the European GM CEO Nick Reilly pretty confident about the future of the Opel site. "The land will be sold," he said confidently. "We hope to find an investor in collaboration with the Flemish minister-president." Reilly added immediately that he hoped a strong selling.
The problem is that GM port land not just throw on the market. The Antwerp Port Authority, which manages industrial, owns almost all land. GM is an exception because it was already on site when the Port Authority took over management. But the Port Authority does have a right to purchase turned on all grounds within the port.
Last year the Port Authority bought in this way also a piece of land from General Motors. Spokesman Kurt Tuerlinckx indicates that the port authorities purchasing half Opel Land to the study. "But if we can buy the whole property, we will certainly not leave. Then we can redirect the entire site and an unnecessary fragmentation of the port to go."
This seems to GM in a stalemate right to come, probably because its factories could not sell to third parties as the Port Authority to buy rights to assert. "Legally that is really difficult, ’says Tuerlinckx. (Frank Demets)
