Negotiations for the sale of General Motors’s Opel unit to Canadian auto parts maker Magna and its Russian partners are progressing well and should soon be complete, the head of GM Europe said in remarks released Saturday.
Carl-Peter Forster was quoted as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he hoped that the sale of Opel to Magna International  could be complete by mid-July.
“It’s only about the details,” he was quoted as telling the newspaper, according to a copy of remarks released before their publication Sunday. “After the meeting between the heads of GM and Magna, I am extremely confident a comprehensive agreement can be reached,” Forster said.
Last week, Magna chief executive Siegfried Wolf said his company “wants to come to an agreement by July 15.”
Forster praised Wolf as a tough negotiator. “He’s putting the pressure on — and that is good,” Forster was quoted as saying.
Magna and Sberbank signed a nonbinding agreement in May that envisions the lender taking a 35 percent stake and Magna a 20 percent stake in the GM subsidiary.
The deal was touted in Russia as a major coup for the country’s troubled auto industry — based on signals that Magna would produce Opel cars there.
But Germany has said it is still talking with other bidders despite the ongoing negotiations with Magna.
Forster was sharply critical of such comments, telling the newspaper that “there is too much talk.”
“A lot of people are talking who have nothing to say,” he said, adding that talks with other investors were nowhere near as far along as those with Magna. “Magna has a very substantial advantage,” he said.
He said issues over Opel patents have largely been sorted out with Magna and the two companies were now talking largely about how the company would operate in Russia.
General Motors said Friday that Beijing Automotive Industry Holding submitted an offer for Opel, giving the bankrupt U.S. automaker more options in the event that negotiations with Magna fail.
Beijing Automotive made the non-binding proposal after examining Opel’s books, Chris Preuss, a GM spokesman in Zurich, said Friday, declining to provide details. The Chinese company’s bid is being reviewed, he said, adding that talks with Magna remained “on track.”
Magna, Canada’s biggest auto-parts manufacturer, was chosen in May by the German government as the preferred bidder for Opel. Progress has been slowed by disagreements over rights to use GM’s technology and engineering designs, people familiar with the talks have said.
Britain, where Opel owns two factories making vehicles under the Vauxhall brand, may lend money to help complete the sale to Magna, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Friday.
“We are prepared to financially underwrite that deal,” Mandelson told reporters after meeting business, political and labor officials at Vauxhall’s factory in Luton, England. Potential government aid would include loans and loan guarantees “for which we have to have interest paid and some securities.”