Opel unveils revamp plan in drive for state aid

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors' GM.UL Opel will invest 11 billion euros ($15 billion) in its European operations by 2014 and chop 8,300 jobs in a drive to break even by 2011, it said, kicking off a bid for billions of euros in state aid.

Unveiling details the carmaker's eagerly awaited restructuring plan on Tuesday, Opel Chief Executive Nick Reilly said the goal was to renew four-fifths of its product line even as it shrinks to a profitable size.

"We now have a road map, we know where we are headed and we are working with all our partners so we can switch into high gear for a successful future," he told a news conference.

Labor leaders and management have clashed over the project. Talks have run aground over GM's announcement that Opel's Antwerp plant in Belgium will close, a move one union leader called a "declaration of war" but which GM says is needed to cut overcapacity amid feeble demand that could stay weak for years.

Opel has said it would cut 8,300 jobs in Europe, 4,000 of them in Germany, where most its nearly 50,000 staff are based.

Demanding that Antwerp stay open, labor has frozen negotiations over contributing 265 million euros in annual savings over the next five years.

Representatives of European engineering unions plan to meet in Brussels on February 23 to discuss the next steps at Opel.

GM wants 2.7 billion euros in state aid from countries hosting plants -- including Germany, Britain, Spain and Poland -- to help finance the 3.3 billion euro Opel revamp.

It has said it is contributing 600 million euros to the financing plan. A spokesman has said this referred to repaying the bridge loan that Germany provided to keep Opel afloat when GM dipped into U.S. bankruptcy.

Opel CEO Nick Reilly has said that Opel has enough liquidity to operate "well into the second quarter."

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner)