By William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
February 18, 2013
The past couple of months for Fisker has been very interesting. In December, Fisker founder and Chairman Henrik Fisker said that the company was looking for "potential strategic partners". Then in January, Fisker headed off to China to talk with automakers. Now Fisker is looking at bids for a stake in the company by two Chinese automakers.
Reuters is reporting that Fisker is weighing two bids from Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Dongfeng Motor Group. The report says that companies from Europe and South Korea were also interested, but the two Chinese automakers sent in written bids.
Two people familiar with the situation say the bids are worth between $200 million to $300 million and would give a majority stake to the winning bidder. Both say that Fisker is leaning towards Geely.
Part of that comes from Geely's experience acquiring a foreign automaker, as it purchased Volvo from Ford in 2010. The other part deals with management structure. Geely has a more lean structure than Dongfeng, meaning it can complete the deal with Fisker with fewer roadblocks.
Any deal with either company is likely to involve one other Chinese company; Wanxiang Group, who has purchased A123 systems. A123 systems was Fisker's primary battery supplier. Wanxiang Group has indicated they would be willing to help Fisker.
Fisker, Geely, and Dongfeng aren't commenting at this time.
Source: Reuters
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
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