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INSTANT VIEW: German solar company offers to buy Opel plants
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German solar company SolarWorld (SWVG.DE) on Wednesday announced a surprise plan to take over General Motors Corp's GM.N German Opel plants, sending SolarWorld's shares sharply lower.
It said it could offer 250 million euros ($315.6 million) in cash and another 750 million in credit lines. It said that a precondition for its offer was Opel's complete separation from GM and that it would receive a compensation of 40,000 euros per German Opel worker -- amounting to around 1 billion euros.
CHRISTIAN BREITSPRECHER, SAL. OPPENHEIM
"This is hair-raising. Who should pay the billion euros to SolarWorld? Not the German government, and not GM either. If anyone thinks that Opel can survive on its own, they're wrong. Opel is connected too closely with GM Europe."
JUERGEN PIEPER, BANKHAUS METZLER
"This is a great gag. Even if they are serious about this, it is absurd. SolarWorld is only getting itself in the news with this. Opel on its own is hardly able to survive."
DANIEL SCHWARZ, COMMERZBANK
"Neither politicians nor SolarWorld can separate Opel from GM. I think SolarWorld's plans are unrealistic."
(Reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg, via Frankfurt newsroom; editing by John Stonestreet)
