Fiat Group SpA confirmed on Sunday that it was in talks to buy General Motors’ (GM) European operations in a move that, combined with its planned takeover of Chrysler LLC, would form one of the world’s biggest car and truck makers.
The new auto manufacturer would have US$105 billion in annual revenue, Fiat said in a statement.
Fiat said it is evaluating the possible spinoff of its auto business to form the core of the new company. Fiat Group Automobiles includes the Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari brands.
The statement was issued on the eve of a meeting in Berlin between Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne and the German economy and foreign ministers to discuss Fiat’s offer for GM’s German unit, Opel.
GM Europe also includes the British company Vauxhall and the Swedish carmaker Saab.
GM has been trying to find investors for its noncore and unprofitable assets as part of a restructuring in which it has sought billions of dollars in aid from the US government to avert collapse.
Opel has said it needs US$4.3 billion to get through the economic crisis. The German government has said it doesn’t foresee giving direct state aid. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested the government could help an Opel investor with loan guarantees.
Fiat said that over the next few weeks, Marchionne will be looking “to assess the viability of a merger of the activities of Fiat Group Automobiles [including the interest in Chrysler] and General Motors Europe into a new company.”
“As part of this process, the group would evaluate several corporate structures, including the potential spinoff of Fiat Group Automobiles and the subsequent listing of a new company which combines those activities with the activities of General Motors Europe,” it said.
In an interview on Sunday with Corriere della Sera, Fiat chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo called GM’s Opel an “ideal partner” and a possible takeover by Fiat an “extraordinary opportunity.”
Fiat is not the only suitor for Opel. Last week, Canadian car parts manufacturer Magna International Inc presented German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg with what the minister called a “rough concept for a commitment with Opel.”
Guttenberg has said the German government would wait to determine its role in any full or partial Opel sale until after the US government had weighed in.
Fiat, meanwhile, has pressed ahead with a takeover of Chrysler.
Chrysler filed a motion on Saturday to sell substantially all of its assets to Italian automaker Fiat, but the ailing automaker must still deal with creditors who refused to come to a deal to erase the company’s debt.
In addition to Fiat Group Automobiles, the Fiat Group includes its agricultural vehicles branch CNH and its Iveco trucking unit, as well as a media arm.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS