Opel Not Giving Up On Home Market

FRANKFURT, March 18 Reuters has reported that Loss-making German carmaker Adam Opel AG on Monday denied a newspaper report that it had given up trying to raise its domestic market share as it struggles to return to profitability.

The automaker, a unit of General Motors, has seen its market share in Germany slide from 18 percent five years ago to about 12 percent last year and has suffered further setbacks in the first months of this year.

Opel spokesman Ruediger Assion confirmed the firm's market share in Germany dropped to 9.4 percent in January and February.

"We have never communicated a market share goal but have also never said we would give up growth perspectives," he said.

"We have ambitions for growth. We are renewing our range of models and of course hope for growth from that."

The Handelsblatt business daily quoted company sources as saying the firm had decided to be "realistic" and only planned for a 12 percent German market share over the next four years.