Last September, during the Frankfurt Motor Show, General Motors executives were confident that their European operations were following the company’s restructuring plan to the letter and would break even.
Less than two months later, real-world results proved them wrong. In the first nine months of 2011, GM's European operations lost US$580 million before interest and taxes. Breaking even went down the drain.
In addition, restructuring, closing the Antwerp plant and cutting 5,800 jobs through September 2011, cost the company US$900 million. And that’s not all: its European division has cost GM more than US$2.34 billion since 2009, when it called off its plans for selling the company, and a staggering US$13 billion since 1999.
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