Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne has expressed confidence in Fiat’s efforts to acquire the German automotive producer Opel.

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The auction for Opel is being contested by three parties at present: Italy’s Fiat; Canadian-Austrian car parts group Magna; and investment firm RHJ International.


An Italian newspaper today quoted the Fiat CEO saying that his company had more than a 50% chance of succeeding in its bid for Opel. He added that Magna and RHJ did not have the expertise to save the struggling car maker.


“At the end of the day, our’s is the only offer that has real content and makes industrial sense,” Marchionne said.


“The others either do not have productive clout or are basically financial: and we have seen with Cerberus, the investment fund that controlled Chrysler, just how weak such solutions can be,” he was quoted saying.

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However, he did acknowledge that there may be opposition to Fiat’s bid from labour unions.


“Maybe the unions like them (the other contenders) because they reckon they can have an influence over certain managers who are expert only in finance and not in industry,” he said.


Fiat confirmed that it has submitted an offer for GM Europe’s Opel and Vauxhall operations last night.


Should this transaction be concluded, a new company encompassing the activities of Fiat Group Automobiles (including its stake in Chrysler) and Opel would be created.


The final decision on who buys GM Europe, which includes Opel in Germany and Vauxhall in Britain, lies with GM itself and with the US government, but the German government will sweeten any deal with millions of euros in loan guarantees.


Fiat is thought to be preparing an offer of assets instead of cash, in a similar model to its recent deal securing a stake in Chrysler.