Germany: imminent launch of the ‘Best Owner Group’, a bad bank promoted by IG Metall specifically for automotive suppliers

While German economic indicators are gradually recovering, the automotive sector, and especially equipment manufacturers, continue to suffer from a structural crisis that is more related to both the transition to electric models and towards digitization than to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following what has been a period of widespread recourse to short-time working, the time has now come to announce the jobs cuts plans. In a bid to safeguard the sector, the IG Metall union has proposed a three-part plan, which was widely discussed at the previous auto summit and of which the first element is well advanced, namely the creation of the ‘Best Owner Group’, as an entity operating along the spectrum between bad bank and ‘benevolent’ investment fund.