German government received 3 bids for Opel today

[Plex]

Fiat, Magna International and the European Opel Dealer Association are all interested

Well, in what finally looks to be like positive news for the troubled GM Europe unit, there seems to be no lack of bidders for Adam Opel GmbH.

On Wednesday the German government received petitions from 3 separate bidders looking to buy a stake in German car maker Opel.

The bidder which right now seems most likely to succeed is Fiat, with CEO Sergio Marchionne looking to create one of the world's largest automaker by taking over all of GM Europe, which will include Swedish unit Saab and perhaps even the Chevy Europe brand as well. Fiat has already announced a global alliance with Chrysler, which has recently gone into bankruptcy.

Another interested party is Canadian auto parts maker Magna International. Also, the European Opel Dealer Association has come up with a plan to buy a 20 percent stake in Opel for 500 million euros (680 million US dollars).

Opel is starving for operating funds given GM's current problems and will be receiving bridge loans from the German government in order to keep operating while the government considers which bidders are best for German interests. The German government wants to make sure that Opel factories stay open and that production remains within its borders. One of its concerns with the Fiat bid is that this new global conglomerate will not be based in Germany. Opel employs about 25,000 people in Germany, representing roughly half of GM Europe's total workforce.

Opel will need about 1 billion euros (1.4 billion US dollars) in operating cash over the next month.

Worldcarfans