By Christoph Rauwald Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Co. on Friday confirmed that Carl-Peter Forster will be leaving his post as group vice president and president of its Opel Europe operations. GM said in a statement Forster will "advise the company during the transition" to find a new head of its European operations, adding that it will "initiate an immediate external search" for a successor. "The Opel brand has made tremendous progress under Carl-Peter's tenure and leadership over the past several years," said GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson. Henderson said GM is "confident that the key personnel leading Opel will stay focused on running the business during this time of transition." "We expect to finalize our proposals for establishing Opel/Vauxhall's future next week and will be engaging all stakeholders to see how we can best work together in achieving our mutual goals," he said. Henderson said that no other management changes to the Opel Europe organization are being considered at this time and that all key management roles remain while the search for a CEO to lead Opel Europe commences. On Tuesday, GM's board surprisingly decided to skip the planned sale of a majority stake in Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall to a consortium led by Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International Inc. (MGA). The move by GM's board cast doubt over Forster's future as he lobbied hard for the sale to Magna to go through just several hours before the decision was made. -By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512; christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com
