The German government chose Magna International Inc. (MGA) instead of Beijing Automotive industry Holding Co. Ltd (BAIC) as the buyer for General Motors Corp.'s Opel on Friday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's approved Magna’s proposal - backed by financing from Moscow - to buy GM Europe division under a plan to provide 1.5 billion Euros in loans to keep the unit afloat. As many as 11,000 jobs may be eliminated across Europe, including 2,600 in Germany, following the takeover.

In four to five weeks Magna is aiming to sign off on the deal and by September the acquisition of Opel to be complete.

Board Chairman Xu Heyi of BAIC left for Germany on May 30th to start talks with the German government about the buy-in of General Motors Corp's Opel unit, and Xu Heyi has not returned yet, reported China Business News Friday.

An insider from BAIC told China Business News that BAIC aims to accomplish a 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) revenue this year, which is hard to realize if its purchase of Opel fails. In BAIC's overseas buy-in list, Opel is always there and now is considered "more likely" to be bought compared with other buy-in targets like Chrysler and Saab.

(China.org.cn by Fan Junmei and Wu Nanlan June 5, 2009)