General Motors Corp.'s German division Adam Opel AG will widen its operating loss to around €500 million for 2004, a company source said on Wednesday.
"The operating loss for 2004 will be very much bigger than last year's -- in the region of €500 million," the source said. Opel made an operating loss of €384 million in 2003.
An Opel spokesman declined to comment on the report.
He said that starting with 2004's figures Opel would no longer report its results separately but would include them in GM Europe's results.
Opel accounts for 80 to 85 per cent of GM's European sales. Sweden's Saab and Britain's Vauxhall are other GM units in Europe, where the world's biggest carmaker has been making losses since 1999.
GM is slashing its European workforce by one-fifth over the next two years in an attempt to turn the business around, aiming to save at least half a billion euros.
In Germany, around 9,500 jobs will be lost from the 32,000 Opel currently employs.