- May 25, 2009
Opel may fall in either Magna, Fiat or RHJ’s lap
Canadian auto parts maker Magna, Italian automaker Fiat and Belgian investment company RHJ International have emerged as the final bidders for GM’s subsidiary Opel.
So far, it has been confirmed by fiat that they have put a bid for Opel acquisition and the final bids for the company are due on Wednesday evening.
The US government has issued a June 1st deadline to the GM to restructuring of its business and gets some concessions from the holders as well as for getting more loans however, according to GM it’s not seeing that they are going to complete the deadline. A considerable number of observes believe that GM will soon file a bankruptcy protection on this date.
In the deal with Opel, the German government is also involved and it is being considered that they will provide billions in loans to Opel’s new owner.
Despite the sales issues, Opel is still being linked with GM and most of the current and future larger and midsized automakers are still using Opel developed platforms as well as European engineering corps of the GM.
Fiat that has also been looking to acquire Chrysler if it doesn’t succeed to emerge and declare bankruptcy and they have a strategy to combine Opel, Fiat and Chrysler to develop a company that would be of Toyota size. Many of the union leaders at Opel have joined Fiat.
Source: AutoWeek