Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC, 北京汽車工業) is in the running for General Motors Corp’s European unit with a bid worth 660 million euros (US$922 million), reports said.
BAIC and GM China were both unavailable for comment when contacted yesterday.
BAIC submitted a non-binding offer for GM’s German-based unit Opel late on Thursday, just before a deadline for prospective buyers, the Guangzhou Daily newspaper, the Financial Times and Dow Jones Newswires said.
BAIC’s offer was said to be worth 660 million euros.
Russian state lender OAO Sberbank is also in the bidding for Opel in partnership with Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna International Inc.
The German government in May announced a rescue plan for Opel in which 35 percent of the firm would go to Sberbank and 20 percent to Magna, but talks have bogged down since.
According to the FT, RHJ International SA, a Brussels-based industrial holding linked to US buy-out group Ripplewood Holdings, has also made a non-binding offer.
Fiat SpA is also interested in Opel, but has pledged no cash for the stake.
The head of GM Europe has said he hopes Opel will be bought by Magna by the middle of this month and that the Canadian firm has a “considerable lead” on other possible buyers, a report said.
In a newspaper interview published yesterday, GM Europe’s chief executive Carl-Peter Forster told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) that the sale of Opel to Magna was on track for completion this month.
“It’s only a matter of details now,” he said.
Forster was confident there had been broad agreement at a top-level meeting between GM and Magna. He could not say when the contracts would be signed, but said: “It would be great if this would work by mid-July.”
The GM executive said the head of Magna, Siegfried Wolf, had been applying pressure. “That is a good thing,” Forster said.
Dieter Althaus, the State Premier of Thuringia where Opel has a factory, reiterated that little stood in the way of the deal with Magna and its partners, Russian state-owned Sherbank and carmaker GAZ.
Magna planned to separate its car parts manufacturing business from Opel, the German news magazine Focus reported. This was to benefit Opel competitors who bought car parts from the Canadian-Austrian manufacturer.
Forster told FAZ that other Opel bidders had not proceeded as far as Magna in their talks with GM, adding: “Magna has a very clear lead.”
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS