* Regional state willing to take stake in Opel
* Opel sees boost from incentive scheme
(Adds Commerzbank mandated to find investor for GM's Opel unit)
FRANKFURT, March 27 (Reuters) - General Motors (
GM.N) has mandated Commerzbank (
CBKG.DE) to help find a new investor for its Opel unit, a source said, as the German company reported booming demand on the back of a government incentive package.
The company on Friday forecast some 120,000 orders in the first quarter of 2009.
"That is the best result for Opel in the last 10 years," said Michael Klaus, executive director for sales, marketing and aftersales at Adam Opel GmbH.
As part of its fight against slumping world auto sales, the German state is paying owners 2,500 euros ($3,351) to scrap old cars if they replace them with a new model.
Klaus said Opel had received some 80,000 orders for its new flagship Insignia model, with 18,000 coming directly from Germany.
A person with knowledge of the process told Reuters: "Commerzbank has received a mandate from GM."
Commerzbank, whose biggest shareholder will soon be the federal government in Berlin with 25 percent, specialises in German retail and corporate lending and aims to reduce what little investment banking business it conducts.
Germany's second largest bank does not rank at all in the league tables for global mergers and acquisitions.
The German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, home to Opel's Kaiserslautern factory, has said it would take a direct stake in the company to ensure its survival.
"People would not be able to understand that it was necessary to bail out the banking industry at the cost of 480 billion euros and yet not even 1 percent of that can be organised to save Opel, an important company that belongs to a key industry," said Hendrik Hering, economics minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINLR50903620090327?rpc=44