The US auto maker General Motors has announced that it will keep all four plants of its European subsidiary Opel in Germany, but may shed 9,500 jobs in Europe as part of its restructuring.

While talking to reporters, the head of GM's European operations Nick Reilly confirmed that the state premier of Thuringia in eastern Germany Christine Lieberknecht that Opel's Eisenach facility in her state will remain open.

Further he said, "Opel needs to restructure the company and to reduce its capacity by 20 per cent to make it profitable again and to remain globally competitive."

Ford Motor Co has announced that its European sales in the month of October have increased by 13%.

However, the company has also expressed concern about the strength of the market in 2010, when car-scrapping incentives end.

While addressing a press conference, the sales chief of Ford Europe, Ingvar Sviggum said, “This is the strongest October we’ve had in Europe for past 12 years”.

Further, he added that Ford is now the second-best-selling auto brand in Europe.

According to figures published by the Spanish Association of Leasing (AEL), Spain is on fourth position in the index of European countries rated by volume of investment in realty leasing, and fifth in realty finance leases.

Around 35 leasing companies with the highest revenue in Europe comprise 4 Spanish companies, one of which ranks among the top 15.

The group cheers Spanish companies to take advantage of their investment capacities in order to develop and perk up their facilities as the key to better output as well as competitiveness.

According to data released by the Bank of Spain, Spaniards invested just more than €1.1 billion in property outside Spain during the first half of this year (2008), which is 40.1% less than in the same period of 2007.

The above figure contrasts with the recent trend in the indicator.

Since 2003, realty investment outside Spain by administration and other residential segmenta, excluding the Bank of Spain, had been developing at a steady pace: from €388 million in 2003 to €781 million in 2004, €1.5 billion in 2005, nearly €2.3 billion in 2006 and €3.3 billion in 2007.