Seven buyers looking at Opel, Vauxhall

UP TO seven buyers are interested in acquiring General Motors’ Opel and Vauxhall operations after the US giant said it was ready to walk away from Europe after more than 70 years.

Commerzbank, which GM has retained to find a buyer for Opel, is set to issue an offer document to the interested investors, the Financial Times has reported.

The document could be distributed as soon as this week, the report said.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior GM executive as saying GM wanted to receive a firm offer within the 60-day window that president Obama had given the company to come up with a more realistic viability plan.

The first plan was rejected after the president’s automotive task force dismissed virtually all the assumptions about sales volumes, pricing and efficiency which underpinned the first report.

The seven interested parties include sovereign wealth funds, particularly in the Middle East.

A labour union leader in Germany confirmed earlier this week that the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has mounted a trade mission to Abu Dhabi in a bid to encourage the emirate to invest in Opel.

Other Middle East kingdoms have a history of investing in German manufacturing companies and banks, including Daimler.

The German federal government is also promoting the sale. A spokesman for the country’s economics minister said on Monday that the government was in talks with several interested parties.

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