Opel dealers might offer to buy the carmaker: report

FRANKFURT: Opel car dealers could make an offer to buy the company following a surprise announcement along the same lines by a German maker of solar panels, a press report said.

An Opel dealer in southwestern Stuttgart told the magazine Automobilwoche in comments to appear on Friday that the idea was "under discussion and taken seriously" by dealers and that it was "not impossible."

There are around 2,000 Opel dealerships in Germany.

An Opel spokeswoman noted however that General Motors, Opel's struggling parent company, said it did not want to sell the German unit when solar panel maker SolarWorld unveiled its own offer on Wednesday.

SolarWorld said it was prepared to pay one billion euros (1.25 billion dollars) for four Opel plants and a research centre, but attached stiff conditions to the deal that had analysts discounting its chances of success.

The same day, the regional parliament in the western state of Hesse voted unanimously to provide Opel with up to 500 million euros in loan guarantees in the event that General Motors declared bankruptcy.