French carmaker eyes GM's European brands

French carmaker PSA said Tuesday it was thinking about taking over Opel and Vauxhall, loss-ridden European subsidiaries of US auto giant General Motors.

PSA, which groups the Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands, "is exploring the possibility of acquiring Opel and Vauxhall", a company spokesman told AFP.

PSA and GM already have a cooperation agreement which has so far lead to three joint European projects that have yielded "quite big synergies", the spokesman said.

PSA was overtaken by rival Renault last year as France's biggest carmaker by volume.

Opel sells its vehicles under the Vauxhall brand name in Britain.

PSA's announcement comes a week after GM reported a loss of $257 million on its European operations for 2016, the sixteenth consecutive loss-making year for GM on the continent. This takes GM's cumulated European losses since 2000 to more than $15 billion.

The US giant hopes to return to breakeven in Europe by 2018 after the impact of Britain's vote to leave the EU and subsequent weakness in the pound sterling weighed on last year's performance.