DEALTALK-Vested interests drag out Magna's Opel takeover

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By Christiaan Hetzner

FRANKFURT, July 9 (Reuters) - Reaching a deal to acquire General Motors Corp's GMGMQ.PK European unit Opel in just a few weeks was never going to be easy for Canada's Magna (MGa.TO).

Now it's becoming more likely that Austrian co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf won't meet his timetable to draft a contract by July 15, because the need to get consent from a myriad of interests is slowing the entire process.

Yet the delays don't mean the Magna deal is in doubt, if only because rival Chinese interest raises even greater questions among the parties who will decide Opel's fate.

Any accord has to be approved by GM's biggest shareholder, the U.S. Treasury, as well as German state and federal governments who are to provide billions of euros in loan guarantees.

"It was a mistake for Sigi Wolf to name the date July 15", given the risks that the timetable could slip, a source close to the talks said.

Berlin's Opel task force and a trust holding 65 percent of the former GM unit are involved in nearly every step of the way. Magna is leading a Russian group comprising industrial partner GAZ (GAZA.RTS) and state-owned lender Sberbank (SBER.RTS).

The 50,000 Opel workers are also at the table with an expected 10 percent stake in "NewCo", while European countries that host major Opel assembly and component plants are expected to contribute financial aid to keep these operations running.