Fiat may tie-up with GM in Europe, Latam-report

DETROIT, April 17 (Reuters) - Italian automaker Fiat SpA
may form an alliance with General Motors Corp's
core operations in Europe and Latin America, Automotive News
said on Friday, citing an unnamed source.
The deal would be on top of Fiat's plan to merge with U.S.
automaker Chrysler LLC, the weekly trade magazine said.
The talks with GM are in an early phase and were not an
alternative to Fiat's ongoing negotiations with Chrysler, the
magazine said, citing the same source.
The deal would not include Saab's and Chevrolet's European
operations, the magazine said.
Fiat had no immediate comment and a GM spokeswoman was not
immediately available.
GM, which is operating under emergency funds from U.S.
taxpayers, is trying to sell its European Opel and Saab
brands.
GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Friday that it
has contacted at least six parties regarding Opel.
"We've reached out to well more than six, actually, people
who have expressed an interest (in Opel). These are serious
people," Henderson told a conference call with reporters.
"Many of them are financial players, some of them are
industrial players. I would expect that work would get done in
the next two to three weeks and so that process has kicked
off," he said.
Henderson was less specific regarding Saab saying only,
"We have a number of parties who are interested in looking at
Saab and our books are open, if you will, in terms of what that
business looks like and I don't really have anything more to
report there."
(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
((poornima.gupta@reuters.com; 313-967-1901; Reuters Messaging:
poornima.gupta.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: GM/FIAT

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