General Motors Corp.’s Opel unit in Europe, seeking to avert a collapse, has attracted interest from more than half a dozen “serious” investors, GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said.
“Many” financial investors and “some” industrial companies are looking at Opel, Henderson said on a conference call Friday, without elaborating. Cost cuts and German incentives to trade in older cars have eased a strain on Opel’s cash.
The Adam Opel GmbH division, based in the Frankfurt suburb of Ruesselsheim, is seeking $4.3 billion in state aid. GM said in March that the unit, which also controls the Vauxhall brand, based in Luton, England, is running out of cash.
Opel said April 9 that it has enough cash to continue without a bailout until at least the end of the second quarter.
GM, surviving on U.S. loans, is prepared to give up at least 50 percent of Opel to ensure the survival of its main European business. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is ready to guarantee loans for an investor, and Carl-Peter Forster, GM’s top executive in Europe, has said the automaker has “promising signals” from potential Opel stake buyers.
Opel, identified by a lightning-bolt trademark, began building cars in 1899 and became part of GM 80 years ago. Detroit-based GM plans to contribute 3 billion euros in assets to bail out the unit, which specializes in small, inexpensive cars. Opel aims to cut labor costs by $1.2 billion and is considering closing as many as three plants, a move that unions are fighting.
