UPDATE: Germany Merkel: Liquidity Guarantees Tool To Help Cos

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that possible liquidity guarantees would be the right tool the help companies asking for public aid, such German carmaker Adam Opel GmbH, a unit of General Motors Corp. (GM), and the family-owned engineering group Schaeffler.

However, any help depends on the companies providing a feasible restructuring plan and that the companies can prove their situation is caused by the current financial crisis and not a result of structural problems. She also said she hasn't yet seen restructuring plans from both companies.

"I regard (liquidity) guarantees as the tool that we are eyeing," Merkel told reporters of the foreign press association VAP.

The German government recently set up a EUR100 billion fund to provide liquidity guarantees and loans to help companies struggling with tight credit conditions, to which Merkel referred.

Armin Schild, a supervisory board member at Opel said recently the company needs at least EUR3.3 billion in capital to survive and become less dependent on GM.

Schaeffler is seeking help because it has a shortage of capital of between EUR5 billion and EUR6 billion, partly because it has to fund the takeover of Continental AG (CON.XE).

-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]