Finally, the verdict is in! General Motors sold a 55% stake in Vauxhall and Opel to Magna International and its Russian banking partner Sberbank. GM retains 35% of the company, while the remaining 10% will be held by an Opel employee trust fund.

In a statement, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said that the “hard work over the past two weeks to clarify open issues and resolve details in the German financial package brought GM and its board of directors to recommend Magna/Sberbank.” GM is said to continue to collaborate with Opel and Vauxhall to produce cars, such as the new Insignia and the new Astra. Magna however, still has to reach certain conditions for the agreement to be completed. Continued after the jump!

At the moment, the terms of those conditions have not been revealed. Moreover, the deal must have the approval of the relevant labor unions and the German government must agree on a financing package. Magna will most likely know if it can meet these demands only after the German elections, which take place on September 27.

Last May, GM signed an initial agreement to sell a majority stake in Opel to a Russian-backed consortium led by Magna. That deal fell apart as senior GM executives became increasingly worried that Opel under Magna would transfer technological expertise to the supplier’s industrial partner GAZ, Russia’s second-largest domestic carmaker and a rival to GM’s successful Chevrolet brand in Russia.

[via autocar]

Tags: car news, gm opel magna sale, gm vauxhall magna sale, magna opel buyer, opel sale

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 2:43 am and is filed under 2009, 4wheels News, Automakers, GM, Opel, Vauxhall, Worldwide, Year, Zone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.