GERMANY: Magna plan for Opel surfaces
8 May 2009 |
A new Canadian-Austrian-Russian plan for Opel has emerged.
Magna International aims to create a European-Russian automaker making up to 5m cars a year, German daily Rheinische Post said, citing company sources.
Under its proposal, dubbed project 'Beam', the company would take over Opel jointly with GAZ and Sberbank to sell 1m cars a year to the Russian market, the paper reported on Friday, according to Reuters.
Magna would present the proposal to the German government on 20 May the reports said. A German government spokesman declined to comment.
Reuters said GM Europe made 1.7m cars in 2008 and sold 2m.
The news agency noted that the Rheinische Post echoed previous reports in saying that Magna aimed to take on a 19.9% stake of the merged entity, while GAZ and Russia's Sberbank would jointly hold 30.1% and GM would have up to 40%.
Opel's management and dealerships could also hold a stake.
GAZ and its owner, billionaire Oleg Deripaska, have repeatedly told Reuters they denied interest in Opel.
Handelsblatt newspaper earlier this week cited a spokesman for GAZ as saying that the company had been invited to join a consortium bidding for Opel, and that the company would review the invitation. GAZ had declined to comment to Reuters
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