China-based Geely Holding Group, owner of the Volvo brand, wants to buy a majority stake in Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive Inc., according to various reports last week.
Geely paid Ford Motor Co. $1.8 billion in 2010 for Volvo. It is one of several companies that have been reported as bidders for cash-strapped Fisker and its luxury hybrid vehicles.
Proposals
Reports last week also identified China-based Dongfeng Motor Group Co. as a bidder, with an offer of $350 million for an 85% stake in Fisker, which has raised $1.2 billion in venture capital and gotten nearly $200 million federal loans since its founding in 2007.
“Given the confidential nature of this matter, at this point in our process we can only confirm that the company has received detailed proposals from multiple parties in different continents which are now being evaluated by the company and its advisors,” Fisker said in a statement.
The company earlier said that it was in talks with a number of potential investors throughout the world, and hoped to have a deal sometime this month.
Fisker hired Los Angeles-based investment bank Evercore Partners Inc. on its search for an investor. It more recently brought on Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group Inc. to handle the company’s day-to-day operations and cash reserves. Huron executive Hugh Sawyer has been brought on to serve as chief administrative officer at Fisker.
DOE Loan
The automaker has seen its funding dry up with the suspension of the remaining $335 million of a $529 million Department of Energy loan. The loan was held up after the company missed sales and product milestones on its first model, the Karma, which sells for about $100,000.
The Karma’s sales have been well below initial expectations, and were more recently disrupted by a lack of batteries in the wake of its supplier’s bankruptcy.
Production on Fisker’s second model, the Atlantic, has been delayed until at least 2014.
—Kari Hamanaka
