General Motors and Magna have set a target of July 15 for agreeing on the sale of a majority stake in Opel to the Canadian auto parts group and its Russian partner Sberbank, sources close to the talks said.
"There was an agreement that Magna and GM on July 15 should be far enough in their negotiations that they can reach a conclusion that serves as the basis for a contract," one person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Neither Magna nor GM Europe would comment on the timeplan.
Siegfried Wolf, co-Chief Executive of Magna, had said on June 3 that he expected a "final signing" in four to five weeks, after which it would await the necessary regulatory approvals before an expected closing by the end of September.
Just 48 hours after Wolf's comments, GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster confirmed the Magna co-CEO's rough timeplan of a "definitive agreement" by July and a closing by September.
During the time that General Motors operates under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and until a sale to a new investor is concluded, 65 percent of Opel's shares are formally held by a trust set up to ensure that a 1.5 billion euro ($2.08 billion) bridge loan extended by Germany is not misappropriated.
Rival bidders waiting in the wings such as Fiat and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp (BAIC) are still hoping for a collapse in the talks in order to re-enter negotiations with GM.
A source familiar with the bidding process said on Tuesday that BAIC received approval to advance one stage further, gaining access to financial information over Opel that Fiat and Magna previously had.
BAIC had already named PricewaterhouseCoopers as financial advisers earlier this month.
GM and Magna have already largely resolved some issues such as the licensing fees Opel would pay for access to GM technology.
Other sticking points -- such as where Opel is allowed to sell cars or who ultimately bears the risk for its 4 billion euros in pensions should Opel file for insolvency -- have yet to be ironed out.
