Canadian auto parts maker Magna, Belgium-based investment fund RHJ and China’s BAIC (北京汽車工業) have filed formal bids to take over General Motors’ (GM) struggling subsidiary Opel, GM Europe said on Monday.
“General Motors confirms that it has received final offers for a stake in Opel/Vauxhall from three bidders. The final bids will now be analyzed and compared by GM,” GM said in a statement.
While the final decision lies with GM, the German government is involved as it is set to stump up billions of dollars in loan guarantees to sweeten any takeover deal in a bid to save tens of thousands of jobs.
Speaking at an earlier regular briefing, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said Berlin’s Opel task force would examine the bids once they had been officially tabled.
“We will then assess the offers in the coming days and then jointly make a decision about further action,” Wilhelm said, adding the government would stay “in close contact” with GM.
A spokesman for North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Opel employs 5,000 people at its Bochum plant, said the regional government hoped the final decision could take place by the end of this week.
Berlin has made clear that it favors Magna, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying as recently as last week that the Magna bid “offers Opel a chance” and presents “excellent departure points.”
In late May, the German government agreed to support with cheap loans and loan guarantees a bid for a majority stake in Opel by Magna, which has teamed up with state-owned Russian bank Sberbank and automaker GAZ.
Magna and Sberbank will each purchase a stake of 27.5 percent. They still seek 4.5 billion euros (US$6.4 billion) in state guarantees. In addition, Russian business daily Kommersant reported earlier on Monday that Magna would also demand that GM include intellectual property rights as part of any deal.
For their part RHJ is seeking 700 million euros less in state guarantees than the Magna deal and would buy a 50.1 percent stake for 275 million euros, according to a draft of the offer seen by Dow Jones Newswires.
RHJ is thought to be planning around 8,100 job losses Europe-wide.
BAIC’s preliminary offer is valued at 660 million euros and it asked for 2.64 billion in German government guarantees.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique