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Fiat boss expected to discuss Opel bid with Germany
2009-05-03
BERLIN (AFP) - Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne is to have talks with top German ministers in Berlin Monday amid reports of a bid for Opel after taking a stake in US auto company Chrysler, the government said Saturday. Marchionne will be meeting Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, their departments said. Fiat earlier denied it was already in negotiations to buy Opel but said it would look into a deal with the firm, a German-based unit of struggling US auto giant General Motors which has said it will cede its majority stake. "Now we have to concentrate on Opel: it's our ideal partner," Marchionne told La Stampa newspaper Friday after returning from the United States, where he negotiated a global alliance with Chrysler announced on Thursday. Under that deal, Fiat will take a 20-percent equity stake in the new Chrysler following its bankruptcy. It can increase this to a 51-percent controlling stake from 2013 as long as Chrysler pays back massive state loans. According to IG Metall trade union official Armin Schild, a member of Opel's supervisory board, Fiat has already prepared an offer for Opel, of less than 750 million euros (990 million dollars). The German government has said it will aid any new investor for Opel, which employs nearly 26,000 people in Germany and is considered a key symbol of the national auto industry.
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