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Fiat
Group has this evening announced that it has met a German
government deadline of today and submitted a detailed
proposal to merge GM Europe's Opel and Vauxhall with Fiat's
own car manufacturing operations and its minority (20
percent) stake in Chrysler. It isn't clear yet if the other
two expected bidders, Canadian contract vehicle and
components manufacturer, Magna International, and U.S.
private equity house Ripplewood, have also as is expected
submitted alternative bids.
The
Fiat Group issued a brief two-sentence press release in
Turin later today to confirm that it has formally made a bid
to take a stake in GM's Europe key divisions. "Fiat Group
announces that today it submitted an offer for the European
businesses of Opel and Vauxhall," read the statement.
"Should this transaction be concluded, a new company
encompassing the activities of Fiat Group Automobiles
(including its stake in Chrysler) and Opel would be
created," it concluded.
As
the pressure mounted on the three bidders in the
run up to today's cut-off deadline, on Monday
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne - the driving force
behind the Fiat bid - met with GM Europe CEO
Carl-Peter Forster and Opel boss Hans Demant at
Opel's headquarters in Rüsselsheim for a
two-hour meeting. Yesterday Marchionne met with
the chiefs of Opel's powerful IG Metall union in
Frankfurt. The German government
previously announced today's bid deadline as it rushes to
secure Opel's precarious future ahead of a June
1 deadline set by the Obama Administration for
parent company GM to restructure or face the
possibility of following Chrysler down the path
into the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.
Today German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to
hold a high-level government meeting to discuss
the unfolding Opel situation, according to the
Financial Times Deutschland. The German
daily newspaper specified that after the
traditional cabinet meeting on Wednesday the
Chancellor would chair an extra meeting to be
attended by the vice chancellor and the foreign
minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), the
economy minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
(CSU), the finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck (SPD)
and the labour minister, Olaf Scholz (SPD). This
evening the undersecretaries representing those
ministries also plan to meet together to discuss
Opel's future.
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