General Motors take-over of Daewoo plants could effect Poland

Today US-based car producer General Motors (GM) and Korean Development Bank (KDB) will begin formal negotiations concerning GM's take-over of Korean Daewoo Motor car manufacturing plants. It still unknown which plants GM will purchase. GM and Fiat, which has also confirmed its interest in buying Daewoo, have a combined 32.1% market share in Poland. In this situation there is little probability that the Competition and Consumer Protection Office (UOKiK) and the European Commission will agree to allow these car producers to assume such a dominant position on the Polish market. Yesterday Daewoo-FSO started another three-week production halt as a result of decreasing demand for new cars in Poland, while 1,100 further job cuts were announced for the Daewoo Lublin plant. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) A. Z.