General Motors was re-examining its options for Opel yesterday after the European Union's warning that the proposed sale to Magna International and Sberbank might breach state aid rules.
通用汽车(General Motors)昨日开始重新研究处置欧宝(Opel)的可选方案。此前欧盟(EU)发出警告称，向麦格纳国际(Magna International)和俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行(Sberbank)出售欧宝的计划，可能违反国家援助规定。

　　Executives at the Detroit carmaker yesterday were discussing alternatives to the long-planned sale if the deal should fail on regulatory grounds, according to two people close to the company.
两名熟悉这家底特律汽车制造商的人士透露，该公司高管昨日讨论了如果由于监管原因造成交易流产，可以为此项计划已久的出售采取哪些替代方案。

　　GM still favours the sale to the Canadian/Russian consortium, these people said, because it fears the only real alternative is insolvency and a controlled administration process. This would result in more jobs being lost than the 11,500 Magna has proposed cutting across Europe.
这两名人士表示，向上述加拿大-俄罗斯财团出售欧宝，仍是通用汽车的优先选择，因为该公司担心，除此之外唯一切实的选择是，资不抵债并接受有限制的破产管理。这将导致较麦格纳提议更大规模的裁员。麦格纳提议在全欧洲裁员1.15万人。

　　Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition chief, threw the sale into disarray on Friday when she said in a letter to German economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg that Berlin's financial aid for the spin-off appeared to be conditional on Magna and Sberbank winning control, and thus could violate the bloc's antitrust rules.
上周五，欧盟竞 争专员尼莉•克罗斯(Neelie Kroes)打乱了此项出售计划。她在致德国经济部长卡尔-特奥多尔•楚•古滕贝格(Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg)的一封信中表示，德国政府资助此项出售交易，似乎是以麦格纳和俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行赢得控制权为条件的，这可能违反了欧盟的反垄断规 定。

　　A spokesman for the German government trust managing Opel said yesterday that it had based its decision to approve the sale to Magna and Sberbank purely on economic grounds.
管理欧宝事宜的德国政府信托机构的一名发言人昨日表示，该机构做出批准向麦格纳和俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行出售欧宝的决定，完全是基于经济考虑。

　　He said that it was up to the German government to clarify any concerns with Brussels. “We expect that the process will not need to be restarted,” the spokesman said.
他表示，应由德国政府向布鲁塞尔方面澄清任何可能引起担忧的问题。“我们希望出售过程无需再重新开始，”这名发言人表示。

　　The European Commission said that it had seen a copy of a letter sent on Saturday by Germany's government to GM and the Opel trust assuring them that the €4.5bn ($6.7bn) of government aid for the deal was not dependent on Magna and Sberbank being the winner, and was available to all bidders.

　　德国政府在上周六致通用汽车和欧宝信托机构的一封信函中向它们保证，政府为该交易提供的 45亿欧元（合67亿美元）援助资金，并不以麦格纳和俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行竞购胜出为条件，而是面向所有竞标者。欧洲委员会(European Commission)表示已经看到这封信函的副本。