Frank Asbeck is not his first eccentric idea

That is that would be one of the finest companies in the solar sector in an as moribund as the automobile industry "A new generation of low-emission and energy efficient vehicles," said Solarworld. The manufacturer of solar panels, which yesterday announced an offer on Opel of 250 million euros in cash and 750 million in Bank loans, intends to become "the first European Green Builder". He has tried all day to convince that it was not a hoax. "This is not a gag, assured its President Frank Asbeck to the Reuters news agency, we have made a serious offer to General Motors. We are waiting for their answer. "If it was a coup for advertising, the invoice would be salt: the action fell 12 yesterday, representing a destruction of value in excess of EUR 200 million.

Solarworld offers to buy the four German sites of Opel and the centre for research and development of Rüsselsheim, one of the most important to General Motors in the world. But he poses as a condition the public by the German Government guarantee agreement and the payment of compensation of 40,000 euros per employee, which would represent a total amount of EUR 1 billion. In the end, the acquisition would cost it nothing. The Bonn-based company also requires a "complete separation" with GM. The US group would then end up with its five other European sites on the arms, but working closely with the German factories.

Extravagant adventures

"Opel is not for sale", a spokesman said yesterday. The German manufacturer will reduce its production in 2009 with the decline in demand and plans to spend 30 hours week. Coming to the aid of the society, the Parliament of Hessen, where she sits, yesterday passed a law making possible the granting of a guarantee of EUR 500 million to the constructor.

Frank Asbeck is not his first eccentric idea. With more or less success, this iconoclastic contractor and hands-on has already embarked on extravagant adventures. The German Greens in the early hours of the movement activist, he financed his studies of agricultural cultivating fruit orchards, then travelled several years on a Harley-Davidson in Africa, where he worked in factories of palm oil. Frank Asbeck is also illustrated in the leasing of tanks for journalists during the Bosnia war, activity apparently profitable .

Finally is the solar energy that he will succeed best: sensing promises that represent renewable energy at the beginning of the 1990s, the "Sun King", as it was nicknamed the "bild" newspaper, launches into the import of solar equipment, and then founded Solarworld in 1998. The company today is one of the world leaders in solar energy, with close to 700 million euros in sales in 2007.

With scepticism, Solarworld argue that it already has a similar experiment with the 2006 acquisition of Shell Solar activities, that he was able to restructure. "Frank Asbeck is a visionary boss, but what he has done with Shell is difficult to reproduce," said Didier Laurens, analyst at SG CIB. For the German bank LBBW analysts, this initiative is typical of the character: "wants more political patterns of solar companies to show politicians that, if they save the bankrupt auto manufacturers, then things must change."