GM Buys Poland's State-Owned Manufacturer of Auto Heating and Cooling Units

07/29/96

Reuters reported that GM has signed a deal to buy Zaklady Sprzetu Mechanicznego, Poland's state-owned manufacturer of heating and cooling units for automobiles. The U.S. automaker signed an agreement last Wednesday with the Governor of Kalisz province. GM's Delphi Harrison Thermal System will have 99 percent of shares in the plant, although it will still be a joint venture. Neither the amount GM would pay for the stock nor its investment in the plant, employing 900 people, had been disclosed.

The deal will take effect on August 1; Delphi has pledged to install state-of-the-art facilities to manufacture car radiators, and the production will start later this year, he said. The plant currently supplies car parts to GM's main rivals on the Polish market: Fiat Auto Poland and FSO-Daewoo.

GM's German subsidiary (Adam Opel AG) plans to begin construction of a 500 million mark factory in southern Poland this year. The plant will assemble about 72,000 cars as of 1998.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel