Fiat says Opel 'extraordinary opportunity'

Fiat SpA's purchase of German peer Opel would be "an extraordinary opportunity" for the Italian automaker, Fiat's chairman said in an interview published on Sunday. A purchase of the troubled German unit of General Motors Corp would be the "closing of the circle" following its partnership with Chrysler, Luca Cordero de Montezemolo told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne will meet German government officials in Berlin on Monday to talk about an offer to buy Opel, Fiat is set on acquiring Opel after it struck a last-minute deal to buy an initial 20 percent of Chrysler on Thursday, just ahead of the deadline imposed by the Obama administration to cement a partnership.
"It would be an extraordinary opportunity for us. They would be our ideal partners, a very strong group would be born." Asked if Fiat would look to a deal with France's PSA Peugeot Citreon to buy GM's Latin American operations if the Opel talks fell through, or if German objections to Fiat as a suitor had been expected, he said: "Easy, we let Sergio work. What I can say is that we are following a strategy coherently. And then we'll see. We know what our cards are and we will play them." Marchionne has said Fiat needed a partner to reach output of 5.5 million to 6 million units a year, the scale he believes necessary to survive the car industry crisis.
The deal with Chrysler makes the combined company the world's fifth-biggest car maker, at 4.2 million vehicles a year. Fiat may have to contend with an offer from Austrian-Canadian car parts maker Magna International Inc, which has shown interest in Opel. Marchionne will meet German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Monday, a spokesman from the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
IG Metall union regional leader Armin Schild highlighted the risk union opposition could frustrate efforts to find a buyer for Opel. German magazine WirtschaftWoche cited sources close to the talks as saying Fiat had made an offer for Opel of less than 1 billion euros ($1.33 billion), which GM considered too small. The report, which will appear on Monday, said it was not clear if the original offer had since been improved. A spokesman for Fiat declined to comment on the report and GM could not be reached for immediate comment.